Stopped reading 3/4 of way through. I found this to be too didactic for my liking and the only reason I kept going as far as I did was I felt I would learn something from it, but it wasn't an enjoyable read. If you were studying independence movements in Central Africa I feel it might be a more interesting read but I didn't get attached to any of the characters, it's very long and full of political speech, and a love affair that appears devoid of passion..In short I was disappointed by this novel as I was by the last Nadime Gordimer that I read: Get a Life. This was written a long time before that one but I feel her work is inconsistent as there were a couple of her books I really enjoyed: My Son's Story and The Pickup and now two I really didn't get much out of.