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How long does it take to read Maru?

Bessie Head

Maru by Bessie Head takes about 2 hours 20 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 2 hours 20 minutes

An evening's read

First published 1971. 127 pages, about 34,925 words.

5 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 3 hours 53 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 2 hours 20 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 1 hour 27 minutes

The page count is the median across 14 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

Read worldwide for her wisdom, authenticity, and skillful prose, South African born Bessie Head (1937-1986) offers a moving and magical tale of an orphaned girl, Margaret Cadmore, who goes to teach in a remote village in Botswana where her own people are kept as slaves. Her presence polarizes a community that does not see her people as human, and condemns her to the lonely life of an outcast. In the love story and intrigue that follows Head brilliantly combines a portrait of loneliness with a rich affirmation of the mystery and spirituality of life. The core of this otherworldly, rhapsodic work is a plot about racial injustice and prejudice with a lesson in how traditional intolerance may render whole sections of a society untouchable.

Subjects: Fiction, general, Africa, fiction, Fiction, Fiction, political, Fiction, romance, historical, Teachers, fiction

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