The White Shadow, By Andrea Eames

A muted voice spinning a bold yarn

Andrea Eames is a lovely writer, but has the quiet kind of voice that, I suspect, won't attract the attention she deserves. This second novel, like her first, is set in Zimbabwe, but whereas The Cry of the Go-Away Bird was told from the point of view of a young white girl, this time she has chosen a young black boy, Tinashe, to lead the narrative.

In the background of this late Sixties and early Seventies-set story is the guerrilla war against white-ruled Rhodesia, and Eames carefully weaves in the violence from that struggle with the upbringing of Tinashe and his strange, otherworldly little sister, Hazvinei. This is a bolder and welcome move for Eames, writing outside of her own direct experience.