Review by Caitlin Martin
The Book of Gifts is Craig Higginson’s seventh novel. The novel opens at uMhlanga Rocks Hotel in Durban where Julian, an eleven-year-old is on holiday with his mother, aunt and uncle. As the plot unfolds, the novel jumps between the holiday in Durban, to three years later and their lives in Johannesburg where some tragedy has unfolded. The reader is kept in the dark as to specific details of the event that occurred, but the different chapters and sections build on each other, with the perspective moving back and forth between the time periods as the book progresses, along with shifting into the different characters’ viewpoints throughout this process. For the reader, the shifting character perspectives and changes in time period adds more insight to the story, reminiscent of a camera lens slowly focusing, with each new shift resulting in increasing unease as a whole picture starts to form.
The Book of Gifts explores the relationship between family, particularly between the half-sisters of Emma and Jennifer who, while having lost touch in their teens, have reconnected in their adulthood to form a close bond. When the novel begins, Emma and her husband have recently separated and we see the support she receives from her sister and brother-in law, and the large role that their support has played in the upbringing of her son, Julian. As Higginson writes, much more eloquently than I: “At eleven years old, Julian Flint prefers to remain invisible, safe inside the architecture of adults provided by his mother, his uncle and his aunt”[1]. On this holiday in Durban, after meeting Clare, Julian begins to show signs of greater independence, leaving the safety of his childhood behind and exploring possibilities that are open to him. His swift extrication from the adults in his life triggers various responses from them, bringing up unmentioned conflict identity, attachment and insecurities.
Higginson explores what it means to be family, with characters pushing each other to limits, both inadvertently and intentionally. The novel engages with the various characters’ responses to, and processing of trauma, along with their inability to do so. As more is revealed about each character, the reader is given greater insight into what motivates them, including the jealousy, regret, and mourning for an unfulfilled future that continues to frame their lives. It is from this context that a young Julian attempts to explore his own identity, to envision a self without others, and to see a future that is of his own making.
[1] The Book of Gifts (2020), blurb
