REVIEW: The Crooked Path by Irma Joubert

About the Book

As retired physician Lettie Louw looks back upon her life, she recounts her coming of age in WWII-era South Africa in this compelling story of delayed love, loss, and reconciliation.

Lettie Louw is the daughter of the town physician in their South African village. She spends her childhood in the warm African days playing with her friends and being adored by her doting parents. When she becomes a teenager, she experiences her first taste of unrequited romantic love in the form of her best friend’s older brother, De Wet Fourie. When De Wet pursues the beautiful and wealthy Annabelle, Lettie’s dreams are crushed, and she moves to Johannesburg to pursue her studies in medicine.

Life in Johannesburg feels strange to Lettie, and the world around her is in profound upheaval as the Second World War rages. Her feelings for De Wet never waver, and Lettie is heartbroken when he marries another of her childhood friends. Lettie soon meets Marco Romanelli, an Italian immigrant, and they marry and raise two daughters, as the racial and political tensions in South Africa swirl about them.

Lettie never forgets her first love, even as the ravages of time, war, and illness play upon her life and the lives of those she loves. In their later years, Lettie and De Wet are thrown into one another’s company again, and they are given another chance at a life together. 

My Review

The Crooked Path is yet another beautiful but haunting work of art from South African author Irma Joubert. The Crooked Path begins with an older and retired Lettie who begins to look back at her life and recount her younger years in WWII South Africa. Her first encounter with her first love De Wet who eventually marries one of Lettie's childhood friends and Lettie who meets a young Italian immigrant whom she marries and has a family with. Then years later Lettie and De Wet meet again and reconnect. The Crooked Path is a story about love, loss, faith, and second chances. This is a story, as all of Irma's works, that will stay with you long after you turn the last page. Irma Joubert skillfully and masterfully is able to create characters that leap off the page and into the reader's heart. This is a must read!