Description

Contextualised within the period 1860-1875 on the Natal South Coast, this historical novel unpacks the lives and experiences of two fictitious pioneer families within the realities of life in the emerging settler nodes of Umzinto, Umkomaas, Park Rynie, Scottburgh, Sezela, Ifafa.

Besides episodes of romance, drama, tragedy, murder and kidnapping, the issues of exploitation of indentured labour, predatory capitalism and social conventions where women’s rights are concerned, are critically reviewed.

The plot takes place within the isolation and neglect Alexandra County experienced from the colonial government.

Travel and transport woes were topical issues of discussion in the fictitious Cutty Sark bar. The travail of sugar planting forms another of the contexts within which those pioneers laboured.

Liaisons is a critical fabulation in that it applies credible invention in the gaps and silences of the historical record.