Longlisted for the 2005 Women's Prize for Fiction
Ellie’s upbringing in colonial Africa in the 1960s and 70s — stiff whiskies, keeping up appearances and English gardens amidst the African Bush — was marked by a troubled relationship with a violent father she didn’t really know. So when she returns there after her father’s death, for the first time in twenty-five years, it means facing a past she thought she had put behind her.
But even as childhood memories threaten to paralyze her, Ellie sets out to discover the dark secret at the heart of her father’s life and her parents’ marriage, hoping the truth will allow her to break free from the past that has haunted her life.
