A reissue of this proclaimed novel, and Zimbabwean classic, that won both the Zimbabwe Book Publishers' Association first prize for literature, and the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa in 1989. The jury citation described the novel as 'a powerful, moving and ambitious novel, written with exceptional linguistic control, plumbing the depths of human suffering but having the wisdom to hope'. The story is the sensitive evocation of Marita, a farm- worker, whose only son joined the freedom fighters in Zimbabwe's war of liberation. The poetic language is rich in Shona idiom.