Hally

Hally is a 17-year-old white boy in 1950 South Africa. His mother owns the St. George's Park Tea Room in Port Elizabeth and his father is a crippled alcoholic and a racist. Hally has had a lifelong friendship with Sam and Willie, two black men in their mid-40s who have long been employed by his mother. Hally is obviously intelligent but struggles with some subjects at school because he simply is not interested and does not care, but he has taken it upon himself to educate Sam by sharing his schoolwork with him over a period of years.

Hally readily admits that the happiest moments in his unhappy childhood have been spent with Sam and Willie, usually hiding out in the room they shared at the boarding house his mother used to run. However, racism is deep-seated in his country and his family, and over time, Hally has...