Andrew Donaldson: If you read one thing this week: Truth is a Strange Fruit: A Personal Journey Through the Apartheid War (Jacana), by David Beresford

First off, this is not a conventional account of those terrible years we thought we knew so well.

Beresford, a Johannesburg correspondent for The Guardian newspaper in the UK, initially wanted to write about the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Instead, what emerged is a seemingly haphazard collection - "collage" or "montage" somehow implies a consideration regarding structure that is absent (a contents page, at the very least, would have been helpful) - of what Beresford describes as "curiosities, ruminations, observations, anecdotes, snatches of remembered dialogue, letters, and stories" from 1960 to 1994, the years of the TRC's remit. The most moving is that of the "station bomber", John Harris, hanged in 1965.

THE BOOK'S ISSUES

A good deal of Truth is a Strange Fruit details Beresford's attempts at getting to what we could loosely refer to as "the truth of the matter".

Tellingly, he gets nowhere with bureaucrats at the Justice Department and the National Archives (which, he writes, "resemble . the headquarters of a ministry of defence, or those of a secret service, rather than a centre for scholarly research") who have "seemingly decided that 'the truth' was something that the public could not be entrusted [with]. Accordingly, they placed the [TRC documentation] under 'high security' and refused to give access to librarians, researchers and journalists".

Imagine, then, if the Protection of Information Bill were to become law. These people mean to hurt us. We must fight them.

BIBLIOTHERAPY

LET'S see, you're a slightly addled polygamist a few years short of your three score and ten and your 21st or 22nd child is on the way. Your friends and allies are deserting you in droves and the wives are at each other's throats. Need help? With the sprogs, I mean. Luckily, your bibliotherapist knows a few mums and they swear by the following:

• Kid Wrangling: The Real Guide to Caring for Babies, Toddlers and Pre-Schoolers (Viking Australia), by Kaz Cooke; and

• New Toddler Taming: The World's Bestselling Parenting Guide (Vermilion), by Dr Christopher Green.

Let your bibliotherapist suggest reading matter: mahoganyridgeback@gmail.com

ONE-LINE REVIEW

Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan Volume 1: 1957-1973 and Still on the Road: The Songs of Bob DylanVolume 2: 1974-2008, both by Clinton Heylin (Constable).

The answer, my friend.

These books are available at Exclus1ves .