A startling novel by the leading writer of the new South Africa As the novel opens Camugu, who left for America during apartheid, has returned to Johannesburg. Disillusioned by the problems of the new democracy, he follows his "famous lust" to Qolorha on the remote Eastern Cape. There in the nineteenth century a teenage prophetess named Nonqawuse commanded the Xhosa people to kill their cattle and burn their crops, promising that once they did so...

While doing a good job of caring for his grandfather's sheep and goat on the grasslands of South Africa, young Malusi dreams of everything from owning his own dog to becoming president one day.

Mistreated by her stepmother, a Zulu girl is helped by a magic fish.