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Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin, a ten-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation, but worlds apart, Beauty, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children after her husband´s death. Told through Beauty and Robin´s alternating perspectives, the narratives interweave to create a rich and complex tapestry of the emotions and tensions at the heart of Apartheid South Africa. Hum If You Don´t Know the Words is a beautifully rendered look at loss, racism, and the creation of family.

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Praise for Hum If You Don´t Know the Words

"Radiant...a stirring ode to a country´s painful maturation."-O, The Oprah Magazine

"Richly drawn...[The characters´] journeys and eventual love poignantly demonstrate that nothing is simply black or white."-USA Today

"In this standout debut Marais handles topics such as grief and racism with a delicate intensity that will make readers fall in love with her characters. From the first few heartfelt chapters to a fast-paced and heart-wrenching ending, Marais has created a stunning historical drama that shouldn´t be missed."-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Lyrical...A captivating story about finding family in unexpected places and maintaining culture in the face of adversity."-Library Journal (starred review)

"Bianca Marais´ new novel, which was inspired by her own life, will sweep you up and not let you go until the final page."-Bookish.com, Must Read Summer Books of 2017

"A satisfying emotional journey."-Kirkus Reviews

"A deeply compelling story of love, loss, racism, sacrifice, and family."-Hello Giggles

"Breathtaking...Intense, powerful and moving, Hum If You Don´t Know the Words is an exalting anthem of love, family and humanity."-Shelf Awareness

"With its vivid, emotional scene-setting, alternating narration and tense plotting, this novel is a thoughtful, compelling page-turner."-Goodhousekeeping.com

"[Marais] brings her homeland to life with compelling descriptions of both city and rural life and the great divide that separated people during the apartheid era."-Cedar Rapids Gazette

"An important contribution to literature about racism in South Africa...it´s a powerful story and one with a perspective many of us haven´t read."-Terry McMillan, New York Times bestselling author of Waiting to Exhale and I Almost Forgot About You

"Bianca Marais´s compassionate debut paints a picture of the alternately beautiful and tragic strategies we humans employ to meet our needs for love. Hum If You Don´t Know the Wordstakes us into the human heart´s wiliness as it attempts to survive the frontal attack of racism. While the attack is a sin, the response is wondrous and wounding and an illustration of the resiliency that can transcend the color of a person´s skin."-Rebecca Wells, author of The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

"Bianca Marais´s stunning debut offers an evocative and thought-provoking look at the unlikely relationship between two South Africans. Set against a backdrop of apartheid-era South Africa, Marais illuminates the experiences of both black and white South Africans during one of the bloodiest periods in the country´s history and gives us an emotionally powerful and historically important story about forgiveness, love and redemption."-Tara Conklin, author of The House Girl

"Bianca Marais´s compelling debut novel is a heartrending coming-of-age tale that not only illuminates the horrors of apartheid South Africa but also speaks with unmistakable relevance to the racism of our own times."-Jennifer Chiaverini, author of Mrs. Lincoln´s Dressmaker and Fates and Traitors

"Beautiful and tragic, intimate and sweeping, Hum If You Don´t Know the Words is a gorgeous debut novel. You don´t read this story, you live it. Bianca Marais creates characters with such love and compassion they nearly walk off the page."-Tish Cohen, bestselling author of Town House and The Truth About Delilah Blue

"I read this book in a gallop, compelled to discover the intertwined fates of its tragic heroine, Beauty Mbali, and her young orphaned charge. Hum If You Don´t Know the Words is an exciting and compassionate novel about a period of devastating cruelty in South African history. With passion and grace Marais makes the political personal and the personal intimate."-Meira Cook, author of Nightwatching and The House on Sugarbush Road

"Bianca Marais parts the curtain on an unexpected view of Apartheid-era South Af

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