Skinner's Drift

Skinner's Drift, by Lisa Fugard

It is always a true pleasure for an avid reader to discover a first book that is terrifically written and thoroughly engrossing. Such is the case with Skinner's Drift by Lisa Fugard. It is the story of Eva van Rensberg's return to South Africa in 1997 after a ten year absence. With her mother deceased and an estrangement with her father, she must deal with reconciling herself to her dying father and her emotionally painful past growing up on a farm in northeastern South Africa. Fugard's writing creates the vividly interesting world of north-eastern South Africa by the Limpopo River filled with gorgeous landscapes, wild animals and exotic flora and fauna. Through her mother's diaries, Eva discovers much about her early years in South Africa and her family. Those years were also times of changing dynamics within South African society and the reader is given "an insider's" view of the last years of apartheid. This is a compelling family story with the bonus of learning a great deal about the land and society of South Africa in the last days of its divided society.
-Roy