This debut young-adult novel, set in South Africa under apartheid, is the story of a wealthy but unhappy white family told from the viewpoint of 11-year-old Emily, the younger daughter. Her parents paste over the cracks in their relationship by playing host to house guests, in this case a travelling Australian family living in a caravan in the garden. The guests are both dangerous and attractive: the father, a wildlife photographer, conceals his violent treatment of his mentally handicapped son, while the younger boy becomes Emily’s devoted companion. Her most loving friends are Buza the Zulu gateman and Lettie, the black servant and nanny, but even these two, and Emily’s dawning sense of peril, cannot help head off the tragedy that befalls her sweet-natured elder sister. The sexual events in this book are indeed shocking; however, it is not only violent and sad but is also about hope and goodness. Beautifully, powerfully and compellingly written, the novel is revealing about the attitudes of Afrikaaners and Anglo-Africans in the 1960s, is rich in Zulu stories and is extraordinarily moving

(Penguin £10.99). NJ

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