Thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources and the author for my gifted ebook to write my honest review.
Koba and Mannie have been in jail. Their crime, loving each other across the Apartheid colour bar in southern Africa. Koba escapes her captors and using her bush skills, finds her way across the semi-desert to her former tribal home. But adapting to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle after a decade away, has challenges. And her mortal enemy is on her trail.
Meanwhile Mannie absconds during his parole and sets off on a sub-continental road trip to find his beloved Koba. But will his new comrades persuade him to join them across the border for training in deadly guerrilla warfare? And what will that mean for his future with Koba?
Under tragic circumstances the lovers meet, but the danger they are in means they face heart-breaking choices.
Kalahari Passage is an action-packed story of a search for identity and love. Readers will be spellbound by Koba’s world where an ancient culture dances, trances and lives in harmony with the land.
Key ideas
● Unique FMC from world’s oldest living culture, largely unknown outside anthropology. The lineage of Koba’s people goes back to the dawn of humankind.
● Dispossession – ancestral land, cultural identity, freedom
● Interracial love – romantic and family
● Racial discrimination and defiance
● Recent black history – Apartheid South Africa 1960s
Purchase Links
Kalahari Passage: https://mybook.to/7qAtkQA
Koba series: https://mybook.to/T81RWsf
My Review
Kalahari Passage is the second book in the Koba series. A moving and powerful historical fiction novel. I haven’t read the first book but can say with confidence that it is easily read on its own.
Historical fiction is one of my favourite genres. South African history is one I only know the bare bones of, and this is set in the 1960s during Arpatheid. I do know that this was a terrible time for South Africa. The violence and suffering caused will never be forgotten or should never be forgotten.
Kobi and Mannie are on the wrong side of history, and their love is one of suffering. This book takes us with Kobi on her journey to rediscover her people after 10 years away. I found this fascinating. Candi Miller really does go into detail, and it gives the story such depth. Her research has to have been so intense!
The characters are portrayed so well that I felt for this couple from the bottom of my heart. The inequalities and the fact that their love was forbidden ate away at me as I turned the pages.
This is a remarkable novel and one that should be on the reading list for secondary schools everywhere. I have learned so much reading Kalahari Passage and am glad to have been able to read it. It isn’t a comfy cosy read but one that will leave an indelible mark on your soul. I am still thinking about South African history now, and it makes me want to cry. That’s the impact of a well written and strong story.
Author Bio
Candi Miller was born in southern Africa and has spent more than twenty years researching the first peoples of the region, a group who have now adopted the exonym of San or Bushmen. She taught creative writing at UK universities. She now lives in Cornwall where she is writing the last book of the Koba trilogy. She is republishing her novels to support a school feeding scheme she co-founded for San children in 2017.
Social Media Links
https://candimiller.substack.com
Insta & TikTok @candimillerauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092417402759
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