barbaraborst

Photo by Barbara Borst, Namibia, 1989

A novel by Barbara Borst

Coming soon.

Miriam Kalimba has set her mind against everything in her parents’ home country of Namibia, although their return from political exile didn’t start that way. Miriam arrived thrilled at the chance to see the real Africa her parents had talked about during their years in New York City. But, as the country gains independence from South Africa, she struggles to adapt to a middle school with sixty students to a class but no one she can call a friend. Her parents, absorbed in their political work, try to introduce her to their starkly beautiful homeland and to their welcoming extended family. A soccer whiz called Ace seems to be a friend when he lets her join the boys-only games on the bare earth of the school yard. But then Ace appears to betray her, and, Sophia, the one cousin in the countryside who seemed like a soulmate, suffers a serious injury that divides them. When Miriam decides to make one more effort to find her place, she discovers the generosity of a boy born in deep poverty, the courage of her cousin Sophia and a lasting affection for her new homeland.