Karen Jennings

On the 1st December 1838,all slaves were finally freed on South Africa, four years after slavery hadofficially been abolished. First of December followsthree people during the week of November 1838: James and Caroline Kendrick, andan unnamed runaway slave making her way to Cape Town along the coast, desperateto reach it by midnight on the 31st November. Caroline is trapped in anunhappy marriage, in a place she hates, always longing to go home; bored,lonely, without purpose or any sense of belonging. James is forever on themove, desperate for success after a lifetime of failure and humiliation, seeingSouth Africa as his last great hope, preparing for the climax of his work, abank to serve the city. Each resents the other, feeling trapped and unloved,yet with a wish for it all to change. Meanwhile the slave-apprentice, fearfulof being caught before the deadline, meets others living on the coast, at theedge of society, yet always remaining alone, without any clear idea of what toexpect in Cape Town.

Deidre is a victim, of herfamily, her society, her history. That is how she seesherself, and so she feels free of all obligations, moral and practical. Untilthe police take her back to her family home... In a Cape Town where wateris rationed and has to be collected from trucks each day, with the consequencesof apartheid and the ending of it still evident, Deidre lives from day to dayin squalor - largely created by herself- borrowing, persuading, cadging her way from the water trucks to the bar, testing the tolerance and pity of everyoneshe knows. Then she is contacted by the police, and taken by a respectfulconstable to the house where she grew up and where she lost her leg in ashattering explosion while still young. Faced with what is found there, she hasto accept the truth of her past, and of her older brother, her parents' goldenboy. Then she must confront herself and her responsibility, and what it trulyis to be a victim.