I have just finished reading “Dis Ek, Anna” (Translated, it is “Its me, Anna”). I have never read a book so fast. I read the whole thing in one day (Sunday, today).
Anyway, what is it about, you may ask? It is about a girl named Anna. Her parents divorce because her father fell in love with another woman. After which, her mother remarries and Anna initially likes this new man and his son. But…she soon finds out that he is not a very friendly man. (Do not read further if you plan to read the book. Spoilers ahead). He starts to touch her in places that are off bounds, especially to your own step-daughter. This continues, and when she is a teenager, just when she starts her periods, he starts to have sex with her at night. Her mother and brother are unaware of this. And it gets worse, for not only does he have sex with her, but is is also verbally and physically abusive towards her and his son. Her mother believes that it is right, in a way. And still, she goes on knowing nothing about how she is raped at night.
So, when she is sixteen, she falls in love with a guy (who is really nice) and she finally has her first kiss. This infuriates her step dad, and he forces her to give him a blow job that evening. After which, she tries to kill herself by overdosing on pills she received from the doctor to calm her nerves. So, her mother is concerned. Whoop dee doo. Her mother has a baby with this man, and soon after, Anna becomes the local school slut. Her step dad still “giving her lessons” in the evening. She finally screams out for help to her mother one night, and when she tells her mother, she gets a beating that almost kills her. Her own mother does not believe her.
She then catches her step dad kicking her baby sister’s private parts, and she is completely disgusted. When she tries to tell her mother, she is kicked out of the house. She also finds out that she is pregnant, apparently with his child. She goes to live with her ex-boyfriend’s parents, who believes her and cares for her for the next few years. Anyway, she completes school, she studies interior decorating through the post and owns her own business. She never trusts men, and goes out of her way to hide her perfect body, as it were.
One day, she hears a knock on her door, and there is the sister whom she was never allowed to see. The sister blames Anna for her being raped by her dad. She is of the opinion that if she didn’t leave, then she would not be raped (a vicious circle). Anyway, she stays at Anna’s house for one night, and kills herself in the morning. She then finds out that her sister was also pregnant.
And then, well, she goes to kill her step dad. She looks into his eyes as she kills him. (I must admit that I felt a great sense of satisfaction. I only wished she killed her mother too [I'm evil]).
The sad thing about this book is the fact that the whole thing is a true story. The writer never gives her real name, and calls herself “Elbie Lotter”. I presume she changed the character’s names as well. I suppose it would be rather embarrassing for the step dad to have his real name in the book.
She does say in the end notes that she fabricated the part about killing her step dad. She says, and I quote, “God beat me to it. He died of natural causes.” Now, it might just be me, but she is suggesting that she really wanted to kill him. Nice. I would too.
Anyway, I would REALLY recommend the book. There is an English translation, if you don’t understand Afrikaans. I think everyone should read this book. I was really moved by every single line. I am never one to comment on such things, but the punctuation usage and sentence structure, in particular, was astounding. I have never seen someone write like that before. I am sure if the writer writes another book, I would surely notice the style, because it is quite particular.
