Ruby Red

Interwoven between her secret world unfolds a tale of art, passion, ignorance and poverty. As well as thoroughly enjoying this book, it was also an education to me, prompting numerous questions. It also contained the best quote I ever heard. 'It's the splinters of glass in people's eyes that make them see the world in jagged little pieces. If we could just get the glass out we could make them see clearly'.

The story is set in South Africa in the year of the Soweto riots which many believe was the trigger for events that eventually brought down the system of apartheid. The story traces the year through the eyes of Ruby Winters, a seventeen year old girl at a private high school in Johannesburg. Her liberal English speaking parents have brought her up not to see a person's creed, race or colour and to treat all equally.

As Ruby stays true to her upbringing she falls from popularity at her school and ends up ostracised by many of her former school friends. She has strong, but different, feelings for a young African artist and an Afrikaans boy which are to cause her both happiness and pain.

Ruby Red is a thought provoking story that is exquisitely woven by Linzi Glass. As well as a great story, Ruby Red gives a brilliant insight into what it was like to live through the troubled times of apartheid.