BRETTONWOOD High School matriculant and Umbilo resident Jose de Santos is preparing to launch his first solo offering to the literary world with the release of his picture book, Elephant.

In Elephant the 19-year-old author, who has been published under SADASA and in The World We Hold Young Voices Rising, tackles the topic of motherhood and grief. Inspired to pen the short novel by the popular Tyler Perry movie Straw, De Santos said he felt that grief and the challenges that mothers face after the loss of a child were not often dealt with at length.

“I just felt that the movie did not quite capture the emotional weight of grief and that it wasn’t sincere in challenging the subject matter in a way it could be just,” said De Santos.

The book also addresses conservation and poaching which is how the main character comes to experience grief. Using the characters in the book, De Santos lends his voice to the subject, having experienced grief himself with the loss of his father.

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“I just wrote what I felt, all these characters are basically my voice. A bit of me, my ideology and my morals,” said De Santos. “When people read Elephant I want them to get a better understanding of grief and for them to be reminded to not be prejudiced against anyone, practise forgiveness and acceptance about what has happened. Find a way to move forward.”

De Santos’ powerful book will be launched at the Zintsomi 3rd International Storytelling Children’s Bookfair, taking place from November 21 to 23 at the Onomo Hotel in Durban (near the beachfront). The author plans on hosting another official and intimate release of Elephant in December.

“I’m really excited about it and hopefully one day Elephant can be adapted into a movie,” said De Santos. “This is just a start, I’m already working on my next title Umlungu. Elephant is the perfect appetizer to what is to come from me as an author. Hopefully a lot of people will get to experience this once the book is out on the shelves.”

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