Schoeman's expert characterisation provides a human conduit to a wider consideration of South African history. Following the lives of several members of four generations of the same family, this is a story partly of suffering and partly of reflection and, accordingly, reconciliation. Prose is elegiac and hypnotic, drawing the reader into a narrative that at first glance appears concerned only with the quotidian but which gradually lures the reader into grappling with the major themes of post-apartheid South African life.
