Synopsis
Lauren Liebenberg grew up in Rhodesia, and it's clear that this, her debut novel, is drawn from her experience. The details are astonishingly vivid: Rhodesia springs to fecund, fetid life before your eyes. What's especially impressive is the way Liebenberg avoids the overcooked beauty that characterises so many self-consciously "literary" first efforts. In fact, she goes out of her way to detail the unique ugliness of Africa.