Theo & Flora

About the book

When stalled novelist Charlie Wasserman’s investment-banker wife divorces him, he finds among her belongings a box of letters. Written between 1940 and 1944, the letters reveal a love affair between her grandfather, Theo, a forty-something lawyer at the time, and Flora, a much younger journalist.

Even though Wasserman’s ex-wife has her lawyers instruct him to destroy the letters, an idea for a new book – a novel that could rekindle his career – is sparked.

As Wasserman’s preoccupation with the story of Theo and Flora grows, their lives unfurl in a symphony of brilliant detail against the backdrop of 1940s Cape Town and the war in Europe.

In finely crafted prose full of wit and poignancy, Theo & Flora showcases the skill of one of South Africa’s...