Love child

the long version

The compelling story of a forbidden marriage, a baby lost, and a love triangle gone horribly wrong, "Love Child" centers on Bill, a slightly disreputable white woman in Johannesburg who came of age, married, had children, and was widowed, all within the confines of South Africa's English enclave. Hers is a life circumscribed by wealth. Rounds of cocktails muffle feelings of being trapped; South African independence is a distant and unlikely concern. When the book opens, in 1958, the disapproving family lawyer is pressing the widow, Bill (a former tomboy), to make her will. At age 48, languidly considering how best to distribute her fortune, Bill recollects her life, especially her brief elopement with a Jewish man when she was 17. Distant from her sons and tired of supporting her brothers and sisters, Bill looks back and questions the choices that were made for her.