A startling, imaginative novel from the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

A violent war for equality has come to the white suburbs, driving out the ruling minority

For years, it had been what is called a deteriorating situation. Now all over South Africa the cities are battlegrounds. The members of the Smales family-liberal whites-are rescued from the terror by their servant, July, who leads them to refuge in his village. What happens to the Smaleses and to July-the shifts in character and relationships-gives us an unforgettable look into the terrifying, tacit understandings and misunderstandings between blacks and whites.

So flawlessly written that every one of its events seems chillingly, ominously possible. -Anne Tyler, The New York Times Book Review