Gillian Warren-Brown read novelist Patricia Schonstein’s fifth novel, The Master’s Ruse – cover pictured far left, to be released by African Sun Press mid-December as a limited edition – which she describes as using “pared-down language to boldly reveal a story that tackles the big issues of environmental destruction and political dictatorship.”
The reader got chatting to the author about her book and discovered an intense and passionate spirituality and conviction that motivates her to write as she does. Schonstein says, “I have an apocalyptic fear — rather than a vision — that we will continue, unchecked, to irreparably harm habitats and ecosystems”.
A nice feature on one of our more camoflauged authors, with no fewer than five books under her belt:
She says the junta in the novel was inspired by SA’s neighbour. “There’s a situation like that on our doorstep, in Zimbabwe, where a dictator and the military have destroyed the livelihood and dignity of people. In my novel I expose the power of the junta, rooted as it is in the greed for power and material wealth.”
These are all weighty issues, but Schonstein believes her readers are robust enough to embrace them — especially because she does not end the novel with gloom.
Smiling, she describes the denouement — the ruse prepared and played out by one of the lead characters, the professor, the “master” of the title. “I used the old-fashioned word ‘ruse’ because it implies mastery, whereas a trick implies mere cunning,” she says.
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