Publisher's Synopsis
A naked body washes up on the rocks at Port Victoria on the remote east coast of South Africa. Mendi Mkhize, former freedom fighter now reduced to magistrate, is sent to investigate but finds his efforts obstructed at every turn. The residents of Port Victoria are refugees who have evacuated themselves from previous lives filled with trauma, and have no wish to be investigated. Meanwhile, Alice Burley arrives from London on a mission to resolve unanswered questions in her family's history. Through conflict and cooperation, Mendi and Alice turn over the soil in which the past lies buried. Tragedy and humor live side by side in this finely crafted novel which the Natal Daily News called "a stunningly absorbing South African story about displaced people who have each found unique homes in a far-from-civilized spot." "The country seemed full of the jumbled traffic of those going upwards to power and wealth bumping into those tumbling down. New dynasties were born overnight, the old flung off the roller coaster. Yet, in Port Victoria, behind the barrier of hills, the change was different. It was as though the present had arrived without completely displacing the past, and the two were wandering around in a blend."
