Shadow Bird

by Willemien le Roux

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Cara]

This book is a series of short stories, each told from the perspective of a different inhabitant in a remote Botswana town. It shows the complex network of friendships, customs, and race and gender relations within a community composed of Afrikaners, Batswana, and Basarwa (Bushmen). The first story is of a white missionary family and their failed efforts to get the poorer members of the town to engage in a group gardening project. As subsequent stories reveal the lives of these people from a 1st person perspective, the reader begins to understand why the characters make the decisions they do, even if those decisions are ultimately detrimental to themselves. It's a sad but beautiful book to read and does and excellent job of capturing snapshots of a community with interwoven but conflicting cultures.

[James Suzman]

The best book about San I have ever read. By miles.