Eye Brother Horn

FROM COMMONWEALTH BOOK PRIZE SHORTLISTED AUTHOR BRIDGET PITT

A white missionary's child and a Zulu foundling raised as brothers in a world intent on making them enemies. A sweeping tale of identity, kinship, and atonement, set in 1870s South Africa, a decade of ruthless colonial aggression against the nation's indigenous people.

Daniel, the son of white missionaries, and Moses, a Zulu baby discovered on a riverbank, are raised as brothers in the small South African mission of Umzinyathi. As an infant, Daniel narrowly escapes an attack by a rhino and develops an intense corporeal connection to animals which challenges the religious dogma on which he is raised. Moses feels like an outsider to both white and Zulu society, despite the efforts of his adoptive mother to raise the boys as equals, and seeks certainty in astronomy and science.

Only through each other do they find a sense of belonging, cushioned at Umzinyathi from the harsh realities of the country beyond-where ancient spiritualism is demonized, vast natural beauty faces rampant degradation, and the growing wealth of the colonizer is built on the engineered impoverishment of the indigenous. But when the brothers leave the mission to work on a relative's sugar estate and accompany him on a hunting safari, they discover a world that sees their bond as a threat to the colonial order, and must confront the impossible choice between adapting and staying true to each other.

With elements of magic realism, Eye Brother Horn is the heart-wrenching story of how two children born of vastly different worlds can forge a true brotherhood, and find ways to heal the deep wounds inflicted by the colonial expansion project.