In turn-of-the-century South Africa, 14-year-old Lettie, her younger brother, and her mother are Dutch Afrikaner settlers who have been taken from their farm by British soldiers to be held in a concentration camp. It is early in the Boer War, and Lettie’s father, grandfather, and brother are off fighting the British as thousands of Afrikaner women and children are detained. Determined to dictate their own fate, Lettie and her family give each other strength and hope as they fight to survive amid increasingly dire conditions. “Dave Boling’s brilliant novel is a meditation on the resiliency of the soul and the spirit, and will long be remembered.” —Garth Stein, author of A Sudden Light and The Art of Racing in the Rain |