Bertie King, a young South African, makes the terrible discovery that the rest of his family considers him to be too dark-skinned to continue living with them. The National Party, with its policy of strict racial segregation has recently taken power and the family feels his presence amongst them is a threat to the continuation of their privileged status and lifestyle. He leaves home and finds himself plunged into a news and strange environment, where his eyes are opened to a struggle he never knew existed. Then his grandmother dies and Bertie is faced with a life-altering choice and its repercussions that reverberate through years and generations. Remittance man is a gripping novel that could only have come from South Africa. It is one man's story, but it is also universal, echoing the stories of the thousands of families who were forced to make impossible choices because of the differing colour of their skins.