Heroes

The Power of One
Bryce Courtenay
McArthur & Co

It's hard to be believe, but I first read The Power of One over a decade ago.  My then boyfriend and I were still in the early stages of our relationship and I was completely blown away by the fact that I had found a "reader".  I remember asking him, all cow-eyed, of course, what book had most moved him in the last couple of years.  He pulled out a worn copy of Courtenay's novel and told me to read.

The Power of One was then, and probably still is now, one of the best books that I have ever read.  The story opens in the 1940s somewhere in rural South Africa.  Our hero, who later names himself Peekay, is five years old and heading off to an Afrikaner boarding school for the first time.  He's English and if you know anything about the history of the Boer War, you realize that poor little Peekay is in for a world of hurt.

What impressed me most about this novel was the fact that Courtenay made every character count.  As Peekay grows up, he (and therefore the reader) learns an important lesson from every single person who inhabits this book. Even when the interaction only lasts a few pages, the characters still resonate.  I have gone on to read other novels that this author has penned, and none have left me as breathless, as energized, as hopeful or as sad as The Power of One.  Five welterweight champions of the world out of five.