Product Description

First with your head and then with your heart ... So says Hoppie Groenewald, boxing champion, to a seven-year-old boy who dreams of being the welterweight champion of the world. For the young Peekay, its a piece of advice he will carry with him throughout his life. Born in a South Africa divided by racism and hatred, this one small boy will come to lead all the tribes of Africa. Through enduring friendships with Hymie and Gideon, Peekay gains the strength he needs to win out. And in a final conflict with his childhood enemy, the Judge, Peekay will fight to the death for justice.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10587 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 630 pages

About the Author
Bryce Courtenay was born in South Africa and has lived in Sydney for the major part of his life. He is the bestselling author of The Power of One, April Fool's Day, The Potato Factory, Tommo & Hawk, Jessica, Solomon's Song, Smoky Joe's Cafe, Four Fires, Whitethorn, and Brother Fish.

Customer Reviews

The Spirit of Africa
I just loved the whole feel of the African Continent that is hovering barely below the surface of this book. I felt the superstitious beliefs of the people that led them to adopt a small boy as a tribal chief and follow his boxing prowess throughout the years.

We meet Peekay at the age of 5 when his mother is admitted to hospital after a breakdown and he is sent to boarding school. As the youngest by 2 years and the only Rooineck (British South African), he gets a really rough time, but it paves the way for the person he is to become. He becomes adept at blending into the background and begins his life search for 'the power of one' - the strength that keeps him one step ahead of his tormentors and results in a fierce determination to learn to box.
As we follow him through his school years he meets some very unusual and influential people, all of whom help to map his character and develop him into a rather unbelievable yet charismatic all-rounder.
I would have dropped a point for these super-man qualities, but the book was a gem in spite of this.

I would never have read this if it hadn't been chosen as a (rather long!) book group read and I am so pleased I did. At the end I felt there was need for a sequel and it seems that one was written. Tandia is the story of an African woman who meets Peekay after he leaves us in the copper mines. At 920 pages it's a huge tome, but I'll certainly keep my eyes open for it.

Beautiful, Terrifying, Compelling.
In 1992 I watched a film from the director of Rocky. It was OK, a bit of a mixed bag. Some years later I discovered that it was actually based on a book and almost a decade later I finally got around to buying a copy and reading it.

Let me say that The Power of One is not for the faint hearted. There are various scenes early on that are very disturbing but necessary and character driven. We see South Africa through the eyes of P.K., a young fatherless English South African (as opposed to Afrikaans) from his troubled beginnings at school, through his teens and then to young adulthood (all the while watching him realise his passions of education and boxing).

Characters in the book are well written and memorable, the surrogate father figure of Doc, the dignified Geel Piet and the odious Botha. As beautiful and at times as terrifying as the history of South Africa itself, The Power of One is essential reading. You wont forget it.

The story continues in the novel Tandia.

Well written, Beautiful and insightful- the Power of One
This book was reccomended to me by quite a few different people- without me mentioning it, which I took to mean that it would be quite a good book. So I read it. To say that I had to force myself to read the fist 100 hundred pages would not quite be true. The horror of what I was reading was almost over ruled by that strange human quality of needing to know what happens after- does it all end in happiness. And obviously the answer to that is- in some ways, but in many ways no. This book is moving, emotional, unexpected, well planned, very insightful. A boy growing up, a journey through his childhood, through the good and the bad. There are so many wonderful descriptions of human interactions. Courtenay must be a wonderful expert in human relationships. The most touching bit, for me, was when Peekay realises that racism is an evil disease sent to ruin good men. But obviously Courtenay puts it much better than that. I think the world could be a much beter place if everybody read this book.