Set against a backdrop of 1960s South Africa, where apartheid sullies all, Glass's debut novel for young adults is an end-of-innocence story that weaves sensory overload and Zulu folklore with brutality and destruction.
Eleven-year old Emily lives with her unhappily married parents and beloved older sister on the picturesque outskirts of Johannesburg, spending her time up trees or listening to the fables of Buza, the Zulu night-watchman. Only houseguests diffuse the unbearable tension by forcing her self-absorbed mother and distracted father to be on their best behaviour, and so the girls are overjoyed when, one spring, a wandering Australian family park up their battered caravan in the driveway. The two boys, one mentally challenged and unstable, are befriended by the sisters as the hot summer months pass. But the gypsies canÕt prevent the doomed marriage unravelling, and when the violence within the caravan spills over into Emily's own family, real horror follows.
Realistically evoking the perspective of a child of the era, Glass spins a lyrical story that is at once heartbreaking and hopeful.
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