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The Power of One: A Novel By Bryce Courtenay ( Ballantine Books )
Release Date: 1996-09-29
Average Customer Rating:
List Price: $14.95
Price: $10.17
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Product Description
“The Power of One has everything: suspense, the exotic, violence; mysticism, psychology and magic; schoolboy adventures, drama.”
–The New York Times
“Unabashedly uplifting . . . asserts forcefully what all of us would like to believe: that the individual, armed with the spirit of independence–‘the power of one’–can prevail.”
–Cleveland Plain Dealer
In 1939, as Hitler casts his enormous, cruel shadow across the world, the seeds of apartheid take root in South Africa. There, a boy called Peekay is born. His childhood is marked by humiliation and abandonment, yet he vows to survive and conceives heroic dreams–which are nothing compared to what life actually has in store for him. He embarks on an epic journey through a land of tribal superstition and modern prejudice where he will learn the power of words, the power to transform lives, and the power of one.
“Totally engrossing . . . [presents] the metamorphosis of a most remarkable young man and the almost spiritual influence he has on others . . . Peekay has both humor and a refreshingly earthy touch, and his adventures, at times, are hair-raising in their suspense.”
–Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Marvelous . . . It is the people of the sun-baked plains of Africa who tug at the heartstrings in this book. . . . [Bryce] Courtenay draws them all with a fierce and violent love.”
–The Washington Post Book World
“Impressive.”
–Newsday
“A compelling tale.”
–The Christian Science Monitor
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 The Book that Shapes Lives ( donnmuratore )
The first novel I fell in love with, and have gone back to time and again, was the Power of One.
The other hundreds of reviews can give a synopsis. My intention is to make the case that all teenagers who go through hard times (and they all do) should read this book. Peekay suffered at the hands of Nazi youths in South Africa from the time he was five, submitting him to denigration and physical torture. But this is not the story of a victim. It is the story of an overwhelming spiritual force welling up from the bowels of South Africa and instilling itself into one boy. He defeats his captors through wit and dogged will, while never learning to hate.
You will go through all the human emotions reading this book, except perhaps hate.
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The Power of One ( lisahunt82 )
This book is one of the inspirational and incredible reads one will ever find. After having read is numerous times I am still coming back for more and will soon have to purchase a new copy.
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Above and Beyond
This is an excellent book which I was not able to purchase locally to send to my daughter in Omaha, Ne. It was, unfortunately, lost in transit and I was not able to trace it through the Omaha post office. I contacted Amazon and they sent another copy to my daughter at no further cost to me.Thank you for a great book and the great service. Both my daughter and I are impressed.
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 200 More Pages???
I used to mock people who would say "I wish there were another 200 pages." For the first time in my life, after reading this book, I find myself making this assertion. I was pleased to find out Courtenay wrote a sequel, but a bit dismayed to discover it is 900 pages. My only negatve feedback: Peekay was, at times, too flawless and predictable. However, I'm quite sure Courenay intended it so...after all, it is a semi-memoir of his own life, except that Peekay responded to the situations in ways that Courtenay wished he himself would have.
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Inspiring ( jmfamily76 )
I just happened upon this book at the bookstore, one of the employees highly recommended it to me. It was magical; the writing was to me reminiscient of the works of Mark Twain. I am a history buff so the fact that it it takes place in South Africa during World War II was a plus to me. The only (slight) criticism I have is that it is a very long book (500+ pages) and I have a bit of ADD. This does not stop me from giving this book five stars.
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