Memory is fallible. Cassandra (Cee) knows this. She also knows that her brother, Wayne, died in an accident when he was seven. She was 12 and looking after him at the time. She knows that a stranger tried to help. She knows that her brother’s body went missing and was subsequently never found. She knows this tore her family apart – her father leaving and starting a new family; her mother obsessively searching for the son she’s convinced is still alive.

If the past is changeable then so is the present. An adult Cee sees her brother Wayne wherever she goes. In coffee shops, airports, trains, in her dreams and in every scenario she is confronted anew by this devastating loss. The first half of the novel lives up to the subtitle on the cover – ‘an elegy’ – as Namwali Serpell deftly and poetically explores grief, loss and trauma.

Then the novel takes a turn. Cee is involved in another accident, and in the wake of it meets a stranger who feels both strange and familiar. His name is Wayne.

The Furrows is strangely unclassifiable. In addition to being an elegy, it’s also a mystery novel, a psychological thriller and a portrait of a family falling to pieces. Admittedly, the effect is somewhat jarring. The first half of the novel is pure poetry and emotion as Cee contends with guilt at her role in Wayne’s death and its lingering effects on her family. The second half, told from the perspective of this new Wayne, is a plot-driven thriller, providing more questions than answers. As jarring as this shift in tone and style is, it’s also exciting. Just when you think you know where Serpell is going, she takes you down a different path. Highly recommended.