52 pages 1 hour read

Bianca Marais

Hum If You Don't Know the Words

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

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Chapters 12-22Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 12 Summary: “Beauty. 17 June 1976. Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa”

After looking for her daughter for two days, Beauty returns to Andile’s home. His sons clean her wound and make dinner. She misses the sounds and smells of her home and wonders how people stay in a place like this.

Chapter 13 Summary: “Robin. 18 June 1976. Boksburg, Johannesburg, South Africa”

Robin and Edith return to Robin’s home to collect her belongings. Robin nearly cries but doesn’t let herself. She takes her mother’s mascara and packs all her belongings. She’s forced to leave the bike behind because it doesn’t fit in the car. She sees Piet, the leader of the group of Afrikaner children in their neighborhood, waiting at their gate. He speaks in broken English as he says that he was sorry to hear what happened and that his mother cooked a dish for them. They accept it and Robin wonders why it couldn’t have been his parents who died.

Chapter 14 Summary: “Beauty. 18 June 1976. Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa”

Beauty attends a covert meeting in her brother’s home to exchange information. Only men attend, but she’s allowed because she’s a guest and her daughter is missing. Some men tell her to be proud of her daughter for doing what must be done and fighting back, but Beauty privately thinks that none of them have lost a child in all of this.