Splendour

SHORTLISTED FOR THE HISTORICAL WRITERS' ASSOCIATION DEBUT CROWN AWARD

‘Moving, intricate . . . a novel of human violence and natural wonder’ Observer

Two friends, Kenjo and Leah, swoosh through the lush forests at the edge of their village in Kenya. Imitating hornbills and lying on the mossy boulders that line the river, the young girls are watched over by a canopy of ancient trees, whose roots reach into the past, present and future.

But this glittering countryside is quickly becoming a haunting. As the armed rebellion against the British colonial regime intensifies, the forest is subsumed in a destructive conflict, disturbing the profound balance of life it nourishes and knowledge it preserves. Forced from their homes, the friends are separated by oceans and decades. Like the branches that once sheltered them, they may be twisted and buckled by violence, but they will also, somehow, endure.

This tale of courage, survival and restoration captures the healing – and destructive – power of time and unearths the hidden traces it leaves behind.