A startling, imaginative novel from the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature For years, it had been what is called a "deteriorating situation." Now all over South Africa the cities are battlegrounds. The members of the Smales family-liberal whites-are rescued from the terror by their servant, July, who leads them to refuge in his village. What happens to the Smaleses and to July- the shifts in character and relationships-gives us an unforgettable look into the terrifying, tacit understandings and misunderstandings between blacks and whites. "So flawlessly written that every one of its events seems chillingly, ominously possible."-Anne Tyler, The New York Times Book Review