Jacobs, Rayda

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Jacobs, Rayda

PERSONAL:

Born in Cape Town, South Africa; immigrated to Canada, 1968.

ADDRESSES:

CAREER:

Writer and documentary filmmaker. Producer of documentaries and films for television, including God Has Many Names, A Minute with God, The Tuan of Antonie's Gat, and The Masakhane Muslims: 300 Years of Islam in the Cape.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Herman Charles Bosman Prize for English fiction, 1995, for Eyes of the Sky; Sunday Times Literary Award for fiction and Herman Charles Bosman Award, both 2004, both for Confessions of a Gambler.

WRITINGS:

The Middle Children (short stories), edited by Charles Wahl, Second Story Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1994.

Eyes of the Sky, Kwela Books (Cape Town, South Africa), 1996.

The Slave Book, Kwela Books (Cape Town, South Africa), 1998.

Sachs Street, Kwela Books (Cape Town, South Africa), 2001.

Confessions of a Gambler (novel), Kwela Books (Cape Town, South Africa), 2003.

Postcards from South Africa, Double Storey (Cape Town, South Africa), 2004.

The Mecca Diaries, Double Storey Books (Cape Town, South Africa), 2005.

My Father's Orchid, Umuzi (Roggebaai, South Africa), 2006.

Contributor to Cape Times. Member of editorial board, Parliament of the World's Religions, 1999.

ADAPTATIONS:

Confessions of a Gambler is being adapted for film.

SIDELIGHTS:

Rayda Jacobs is a writer and documentary filmmaker. When asked about her preference between writing and filmmaking on the Exclusive Books Web site, Jacobs replied: "I enjoy it all as I don't consider myself to be a writer really, but rather a storyteller. As long as I can tell you a story, I'm happy. It costs nothing, of course, to write. To make a film can put you in the poor-house." Born in Cape Town, Jacobs left South Africa for Toronto in 1968 and remained in Canada for twenty-seven years. While in Canada, Jacobs published her first book, the story collection The Middle Children. Most of the stories feature South African themes, including mixed race characters, exile, and race relations. Commenting on Jacobs's stories in the Women's Review of Books, Lesego Malepe found that "despite the pain she portrays, her writing never descends into maudlin sentimentalism and self-pity. The prose is clean and crisp, and yet there's a current of warmth and a touching humanity all through."

Jacobs's second book, Eyes of the Sky, was published in 1996 after she returned to South Africa. It was awarded the Herman Charles Bosman Prize for English fiction. This novel tells of the Harman family and their relations with local Bushmen and their Dutch farming neighbors. World Literature Today contributor Sheila Roberts noted that "the pace is good, the dialogue realistic and believable, and the Harman family interacts in complex ways not only with the Sonqua but also with their Dutch neighbors."

Confessions of a Gambler, published in 2003, won both the Sunday Times Literary Award for fiction and the Herman Charles Bosman Award in 2004. The story features Abeeda, a Muslim woman living in Cape Town who becomes addicted to gambling, one of her religion's sins. Abeeda's love interest—her brother-in-law—toys with her heart, and her youngest son confides to her that he has AIDS. She spends an increasing amount of time at the casino to ease her pains, only to worsen her overall situation as she goes into debt. Booklist contributor Thomas Gaughan remarked that Jacobs "has crafted a compulsively readable novel of family, love, loss, shame, and redemption." A contributor to Publishers Weekly wrote that Jacobs "realistically portrays the psychology of an addict." Joy Humphrey, writing in the Library Journal, commented that Jacobs "has written a gripping, first-person narrative that explores one woman's struggle with her religion, relationships, and addiction."