The Burning Land

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What impressed me the most was the South Africa background and political scape that was in this book.

The Burning Land by George Alagiah – Canongate Books

Photograph: Kim Ludbrook/EPA The Burning Land is set in South Africa, ‘a country struggling to redefine itself’.Lindi Seaton lives in London and works for South Trust, a high profile charity and well-respected organisation dedicated to conflict resolution around the world. Had I joined then, I’d have entered a very white world, dominated by people from a certain class and set of institutions.

The Burning Land - Alagiah, George: 9781786897947 - AbeBooks

One such billionaire is Josiah Motlantshe, referred to as one of the Black Diamonds, a businessman, married to wife Priscilla, who has remained true to the cause, even if her husband has not.I loved the characters of this book, from the more important personages like Anton ('Whether you are being fucked by a black bastard or a white bastard is irrelevant—you are still being fucked. Uneven and marred by anachronisms, this is nevertheless a promising debut – gothic, claustrophobic and wonderfully dark. There is no doubt that Alagiah knows his subject (xenophobia and corruption in South Africa) but it is somewhat surprising that, as a BBC journalist/broadcaster, someone who tells stories for a living, he should be so little in control of his material. Its precious land is being sold off to the highest bidders while the country’s corrupt elite pocket the profits.

The Burning Land - Alagiah, George: 9781786897947 - AbeBooks The Burning Land - Alagiah, George: 9781786897947 - AbeBooks

Josiah Motlantshe was a leading voice in the struggle for freedom and to end apartheid and went to prison. widow Laura is left emotionally and financially bereft after the sudden death of husband Gavan, and when the members of an organic food cooperative who live nearby offer her and her 17-year-old daughter Tilly a home, she accepts gratefully.

The plot, which also involves Headley’s son and Matheson’s daughter, is somewhat contrived, but Barclay does a good job of keeping all the characters in play in a proficient thriller that presses all the right buttons. by Sam Hurcom employs the folk-horror staple of the rational outsider who arrives in a superstitious backwater to solve a mystery.