THE INNOCENCE OF ROAST CHICKEN, a novel

254pp., paperback, Revised Edition, Johannesburg, (1996) 2019

Reprint of a novel about family life on a farm in the Eastern Cape, seen through the eyes of the young girl, Kate. Scenes from Kate’s early life on the farm in the 1960s are juxtaposed with 1989 Johannesburg, Kate, now married and a human rights lawyer, unhappy with her marriage and the national situation, revisits a brutal incident one Christmas day when she was forced into an awareness of what lay beneath her blissful childhood.

Includes "Innocence Lost", an foreword to the new edition by Jo-Anne Richards

"On its debut, The Innocence of Roast Chicken was the perfect herald of South Africa's transition. It remains an enduringly lyrical and evocative landmark novel, both coolly rational and achingly nostalgic in its depiction of the beloved country." Finuala Dowling, author of Homemaking for the Down-at-heart and I, Flying

"The Innocence of Roast Chicken" broke the paradigm. It helped to define the time, giving insight into where some of us had come from, and it pointed the way to what we could become. That's what great writing should accomplish." Ronnie Kasrils, author of A Simple Man, Kasrils And the Zuma enigma and former Minister of Intelligence Services

Jo-Anne Richards lives in Cape Town and teaches creative writing through All About Writing. Her other novels includeSad at the Edges, My Brother's Book and The Imagined Child.