Two countries in turmoil, two lives betrayed and one love that links them. Kip Balmain, a young Australian boy taken to a small town in Africa, finds himself caught up in the violence of colonial Kenya. As the country struggles towards independence, Kip also struggles to understand his mother's vindictive hatred of the father he has never met - and resolves to uncover the mystery of his parentage. In Uganda, Rose Nasonga, a girl at risk after her idyllic village life becomes a nightmare of civil war, uses her beauty to escape into the world of fashion, but learns that her new life can be equally destructive.Out of the horrors of war, across the boundaries of time and race, Kip and Rose discover that their lives are mysteriously linked. And that the paths they travel alone, and ultimately together, lead them inexorably to their greatest discovery. 'robust adventure ... Coates does a fine job suffusing his novel with Eastern Africa's postwar history' tHE AGE 'powerfully recreates the turbulent past' COURIER-MAIL