BLOOD’S MIST

Jacana Media publishes gripping book by David Donald.

David Donald is an explorer, a father, grandfather and perhaps not unsurprisingly, a storyteller. Emeritus Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Cape Town, his recent venture into fiction - Blood’s Mist - builds upon neglected aspects of South African history and cultural experience.

“(/Kaunu) fell asleep…only to find himself caught up in a frightening dream. Mist was swirling all around him: thick mist, cold and threatening – !Khwa’s mist. Then cries and screams echoed out of the dense, white blanket. Swirling, smoking, the mist turned the colour of blood.”

A tale told in an unforgiving time, Blood’s Mist weaves a gripping drama of two families. In this meticulously researched and insightful story, the worlds of /Kaunu and Richard, a Bushman and a British settler, are linked by history and circumstance, and a clash is inevitable. The questions and discoveries that arise are the stuff of a captivating historical novel. With a richness and wonder that is reminiscent of Dalene Mathee at her best, David Donald delivers a vibrant, powerful and compelling read.

Not only is Blood’s Mist gripping. Donald also evokes an authentic sense of place, and of the historical time over which the story happens. Most important, through his research of the culture of the Drakensberg Bushmen, and the drastically changing circumstances in which they lived in the mid 1800s, he has woven these dimensions naturally and easily into the story through his characters’ own words, actions and experiences.

Published in paperback by Jacana Media in June 2009, Blood’s Mist retails at R165. EAN/ISBN-13: 978-1-77009-664-6