Beginning with the wreck of a Portuguese ship off the feared Wild Coast of South Africa in 1814, this captivating novel spans southern Africa's tumultuous past, from unexplored South East Africa in 1814, to war-torn Angola in 1970. The reader is swept along through tribal conflicts, including the rise of Shaka, the charismatic founder of the Zulu nation, political events and racial tensions in a world in the process of discovery.

 

Richly peopled by resourceful men and women; Petros Ammamanian, his son Theo, Shaka and his powerful mother Nandi, and the diamond dealer Barney Barnato; it is a story of a remarkable mixed race family.

 

Seen through the eyes of a young Englishman committed to tracking down the lost journals of Petros, a survivor of the shipwreck, and of his son Theo, this exciting story follows their adventures, the discovery of diamonds, and the founding of a unique island state on an isolated river in South West Africa.