‘I let myself drop into the grass until I was lying down and stretched out. It looked as if there were leaves on the trees, but they kept spinning in the air. Some of them drifted upwards, but there was no wind. They also didn’t look the right color for leaves, more of a creamish color. Then I noticed that not a single tree was bare, each one stood in full bloom… with butterflies. With squinting eyes I peered up at Zanele who was standing in the grass, outlined by the full glare of the sun.
“It’s all butterflies!” 
She nodded. “It’s butterfly month” she said with a smile.’ 

Newly-qualified doctor, Joni, moves to South Africa to escape her family, her past, her failed relationship. The African landscape is beautiful, but in time she will discover what it can hide. Her Zulu housekeeper, Zanele who has moved in with her along with her two children, becomes her intimate confidante but as their friendship develops troubling events cause deep difficulties between them and Joni’s relationship with her housekeeper’s teenage son becomes complicated by sexual attraction. Her provincial hospital is over-run with AIDS cases or shootings and the blinding sun can’t hide the dark heart of Africa in its glare. And neither will Joni’s emotional past desert her.

A beautifully written novel with a devastating climax that captures the fierce nature of South Africa today.