Karen Jennings has delivered another masterpiece! The compelling Deidre Van Deventer confronts her family’s dark past in this riveting novel about trauma, guilt, and entrapment. In her dismal abode in the drought-ravaged Cape Town of 2028, the protagonist receives a call from the South African police department. Her family home, reclaimed by the government, is now the scene of a criminal investigation. After decades underground the remains of bodies have been found on this property. Detectives interrogate Deidre about her missing brother’s links with a 1990’s pro-apartheid group, but she appears to know nothing about this.
What Deidre does know is that, because of her sibling, she was denied her dream life. Instead, she is left with an aging mother, and she’s dependent on government help and kind neighbours. Fresh evidence surfaces and detectives keep gently pressurising Deidre to give them anything at all that she might remember …
Jennings’s vivid, stark prose and visceral imagery secure her a place as one of our greatest writers.
I dare you to read this intense, unforgettable novel.
Gail Gilbride is the author of Under the African Sun and Cat Therapy.
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