These are stories of people caught up in a world that tilts seductively, sometimes dangerously, between south and north, between ambition and tradition, between light and dark. Her characters are poised to leave or on the point of return - often caught in limbo, haunted by their histories and veering between possibilities.

An African student in England longs for her desert home, a shy Argentinian travel agent agonises about joining her boyfriend in New York, a soldier is pursued by his past, a writer’s widow fends off the attentions of his predatory biographer.

From story to story we walk through radically different worlds and journeys packed with hopes and ideals. Sharp, tender, and always arresting, these exquisitely written pieces crackle with luminous insights as characters struggle to find contentment - with their pasts, with one another, and with themselves.

‘Compassionate, intelligent and evocative: this is morally serious writing, lucidly rendered.’ - Gail Jones, author of The Death of Noah Glass

‘Assured, accomplished…with passion and intelligence, and rare moral insight, Elleke Boehmer traces the scars left on the psyche by the tortuous histories of the South.’ - J.M. Coetzee, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature and two-time Man Booker Prize recipient

‘Arresting, intriguing, and brilliantly crafted.’ - Kwame Dawes