Nyree and Cia live on a remote farm in the east of what was Rhodesia in the late 1970s. Beneath the dripping vines of the Vumba rainforest, and under the tutelage of their heretical grandfather, theirs is a seductive childhood laced with African paganism, mangled Catholicism and the lore of the Brothers Grimm. Their world extends as far as the big fence, erected to keep out the 'Terrs' whom their father is off fighting. The two girls know little beyond that until the arrival from the outside world of 'the bastard', their orphaned cousin Ronin, who is to poison their idyll for ever.

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About the Author
Lauren Liebenberg was born in what was Rhodesia and spent her early childhood in the crucible of the civil war. She now lives in South Africa and has an MBA from the business school of the University of Witwatersrand. She is married to an Englishman and has two young children.

Reviews
** 'Full of memorable characters and flavoured with the intensity of childhood, this is a debut that stays with the reader long after the last page is read * WATERSTONE'S BOOKS QUARTERLY *
An evocative debut . . . told from the vantage point of an eight-year-old girl growing up on an isolated farm: a small world in human terms but enriched by the sights and smells of Africa * MAIL ON SUNDAY *
This is an outstanding first novel * DAILY MAIL *
Excellent and unsettling . . . 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 "lite * Carrie O'Grady, GUARDIAN *


Awards
Short-listed for Orange Prize 2008 (UK) and Orange Broadband Award for New Writers 2008 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9781844084685
Author Lauren Liebenberg
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Virago Press Ltd
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Weight(grams) 184g
Dimensions(mm) 131mm * 200mm * 17mm