Under the Jacaranda

Under the Jacaranda is a sweeping contemporary saga following Serene, a wife and mother, as she travels between Johannesburg and Nairobi, reflecting on her past and how her life has turned out. In Jo'burg, she discovers that an old friend, Nomsa, has cancer - which contributes to her contemplation and soul-searching. Her thoughts turn to her fraught family history - delving into the tribulations of an African family through the upheavals of post-colonial and modern Kenya. Flitting between the present and the past, traversing four decades, three countries and two continents, we learn about her through the complexities of family and love - such as her father's secret daughter, and the tensions between her and her sisters. We follow her self-discovery as she reconnects with her past, and all the characters in it. That many characters throughout this emotionally loaded epic help explore an overarching and important theme - identity. They also portray many other traits of human nature - greed, malice, deception, prejudice, jealousy, joy, triumph, and empathy. The constant slipping between the past and the present brings a spiritual atmosphere to the book, which often feels dreamy and magical - a bittersweet mix of nostalgia and past hopes, while the frequent reference to a resistant brown patch under a jacaranda tree in her parents' garden easily draws parallels with the trials and tribulations of her family. All of these build up conflict, leading to the climactic scene of her father's memorial service, where all the hidden and alarming secrets of the family are finally brought into the open.