In a remote part of Africa, the Kalahari Desert keeps secrets. For Koba, a girl of the indigenous Ju'hoan people, the secret is the day the gunfire tore her family apart, leaving her orphaned on a white man's farm. For Mannie, the farmer's son, the secret is his father's role in the bloodshed, a guilt that haunts his every step.
Koba lives alone in a cave, reliant on her bush skills to survive in the wild. Mannie is her enemy but they are growing up in the shadow of their shared tragedy. The teens forge a bond in the stark landscape of apartheid South Africa-a friendship that is a comfort and a crime. But as their connection deepens into a love that defies every law and convention of their unjust world, they are set on a collision course with a society that will tolerate no love across the colour bar.
Book 1 of this fast-paced saga introduces a strong female hero into literary adventure, offering readers a fascinating glimpse into a forgotten way of life and into recent black history.Salt & Honey is an unforgettable epic of survival in the wild, forbidden love, and finding family among those you fear.
It's for readers of Where the Crawdads Sing and Clan of the Cave Bear Rich in detail, the novel is the only work of fiction to date, based on the customs of the Ju'hoan people, a San (Bushmen) group, studied by the author as an academic researcher, over decades. The Koba series is endorsed by the Ju'hoan community and income from book sales goes to a non-profit that supports the education of their children in their remote village schools in Namibia."A finely drawn portrait of a disappearing world." Times Literary Supplement
"An ambitious novel with impressive range and a very authentic feel." Barbara Trapido.
"A tracker tale in the great tradition of African adventure hunts; with a twist-- hunter and hunted are humans." Rachel Holmes