The White Shadow, By Andrea Eames

For Tinashe, the young narrator of Eames's atomspheric second novel, the safest place to be is inside the carcass of an elephant: "I don't know what I expected to find inside the elephant – a beating heart? Intestines waving gaily like torn flags."

But escaping the political violence of 1960s Rhodesia isn't the only struggle this over-burdened youth has to face. Responsible for his eccentric sister's safety, he finds himself confronting a wave of misogynistic nastiness from villagers.

Eames is a writer who injects even the grimmest of scenarios with an overarching tenderness.