Bianca Marais holds a Certificate in Creative Writing from the University of Toronto’s SCS, and her work has been published in World Enough and Crime. Before turning to writing, she started a corporate training company and volunteered with Cotlands, where she assisted care workers in Soweto with providing aid for HIV/AIDS orphans. Originally from South Africa, she now resides in Toronto with her husband.

Author Residence: Toronto, ON

Author Hometown: Johannesburg, South Africa

“An important contribution to literature about racism in South Africa...it's a powerful story and one with a perspective many of us haven't read.”—Terry McMillan, New York Times bestselling author of Waiting to Exhale and I Almost Forgot About You

“Bianca Marais’s compassionate debut paints a picture of the alternately beautiful and tragic strategies we humans employ to meet our needs for love. Hum If You Don’t Know the Words takes us into the human heart’s wiliness as it attempts to survive the frontal attack of racism. While the attack is a sin, the response is wondrous and wounding and an illustration of the resiliency that can transcend the color of a person’s skin.”—Rebecca Wells, author of The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

“Bianca Marais’s stunning debut offers an evocative and thought-provoking look at the unlikely relationship between two South Africans. Set against a backdrop of apartheid-era South Africa, Marais illuminates the experiences of both black and white South Africans during one of the bloodiest periods in the country’s history and gives us an emotionally powerful and historically important story about forgiveness, love and redemption.”—Tara Conklin, author of The House Girl

“Bianca Marais’s compelling debut novel is a heartrending coming-of-age tale that not only illuminates the horrors of apartheid South Africa but also speaks with unmistakable relevance to the racism of our own times.”—Jennifer Chiaverini, author of Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker and Fates and Traitors

“Radiant…a stirring ode to a country’s painful maturation.” –O, The Oprah Magazine

“Richly drawn…[The characters’] journeys and eventual love poignantly demonstrate that nothing is simply black or white.” –USA Today

“In this standout debut Marais handles topics such as grief and racism with a delicate intensity that will make readers fall in love with her characters. From the first few heartfelt chapters to a fast-paced and heart-wrenching ending, Marais has created a stunning historical drama that shouldn’t be missed.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Lyrical...A captivating story about finding family in unexpected places and maintaining culture in the face of adversity.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“Bianca Marais’ new novel, which was inspired by her own life, will sweep you up and not let you go until the final page.”—Bookish.com, Must Read Summer Books of 2017

“A satisfying emotional journey.”—Kirkus Reviews

"A deeply compelling story of love, loss, racism, sacrifice, and family." --Hello Giggles

“Breathtaking...Intense, powerful and moving, Hum If You Don't Know the Words is an exalting anthem of love, family and humanity.”—Shelf Awareness

“With its vivid, emotional scene-setting, alternating narration and tense plotting, this novel is a thoughtful, compelling page-turner.” –Goodhousekeeping.com

“[Marais] brings her homeland to life with compelling descriptions of both city and rural life and the great divide that separated people during the apartheid era.” –Cedar Rapids Gazette

One of Real Simple's Best New Books to Read This Month

Chosen as one of Library Journal's Writers To Watch and New York Post's Required Reading

“Beautiful and tragic, intimate and sweeping, Hum If You Don’t Know the Words is a gorgeous debut novel. You don’t read this story, you live it. Bianca Marais creates characters with such love and compassion they nearly walk off the page.”—Tish Cohen, bestselling author of Town House and The Truth About Delilah Blue

“I read this book in a gallop, compelled to discover the intertwined fates of its tragic heroine, Beauty Mbali, and her young orphaned charge. Hum If You Don't Know the Words is an exciting and compassionate novel about a period of devastating cruelty in South African history. With passion and grace Marais makes the political personal and the personal intimate.”—Meira Cook, author of Nightwatching and The House on Sugarbush Road

“Bianca Marais parts the curtain on an unexpected view of Apartheid-era South Africa in this gutsy, surprising, and richly imagined tale. It will be a long time before the reader forgets the novel’s compelling characters, and the tremendous determination, yearning, and humanity with which they navigate complex emotional landscapes in their intersecting quests for connection, family, and justice.”—Ania Szado, bestselling author of Studio Saint-Ex

“Expertly crafted, both lyrical and gripping, with some truly poignant moments especially pertaining to parenthood.”—Emma Hooper, author of Etta and Otto and Russell and James

“Bianca Marais has written a haunting and moving novel of Apartheid South Africa that held me in its thrall from beginning to end. Against a backdrop of legislated racism, Marais brilliantly entwines two disparate voices in a searing story of love, loss and recovery. Masterful and memorable.”—Terry Fallis, two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour

“A classic loss-of-innocence story with a striking social backdrop…Well-researched and dosed with humor and humility.” –Seattle Times