Mother of Tides - Softcover

Casey, KC

Softcover

ISBN 10: 152129836X ISBN 13: 9781521298367

Publisher: Independently published, 2017

Synopsis

Two women, from worlds that could not be further apart – M’Zinta, daughter of Q!kwa, cave-dweller and sole survivor of an ancient tribe, and Sarah Smith, educated daughter of a Calvinist minister, secure in her inbred sense of superiority and privilege – suddenly find their lives hurled together. Hermanuspietersfontein, Cape Colony 1895. M’Zinta lives in a cave below this tiny clifftop fishing village near the southern tip of Africa. Her people have foraged for seafood along this shoreline since the beginning of time. Her most precious possession is an ancient obsidian cutting tool: she is essentially a relic of the Stone Age. A true child of nature, her senses, perception and intuitive powers undiminished, M’Zinta shuns the otherworldly white invaders above; they are bringers of the pestilence and ill-fortune that have devastated her people. Sarah Smith, now married to a fisherman, lives above. Like the other villagers she is barely aware of M’Zinta: to her the naked little Strandloper woman is patently inferior, perhaps even less than fully human. Yearning for motherhood, Sarah is by turns guilt-ridden or resentful: she sees her barrenness as divine retribution for marrying in defiance of her father and the church. Fisherman John Smith has become impotent due to Sarah’s obsessive attempts to conceive. The other fishermen tease him about his apparent inability to father children: “… are you sure your hook is big enough, mate?” The fishermen have never harmed the whales that visit the bay every year but John, in an attempt to prove his manhood, breaks this unwritten covenant when he hunts and kills a female whale. When it becomes apparent that M’Zinta is pregnant, the village is thrown into a seething turmoil of speculation and suspicion that quickly turns into murderous animosity. When the worlds of M’Zinta and Sarah collide, they are forced to face their innermost fears and prejudices. Fate, M’Zinta’s spirit ancestors, Sarah’s vengeful God and sanctimonious father, fickle tides and even the whales in the bay: they all conspire to complicate matters but in the end it is sisterhood that prevails and the two women eventually find each other, connecting in the sacred and primal bond that unites all females in the universe. But what of M’Zinta’s child…?

Edition details

• Publisher: Independently published
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 152129836X
• ISBN 13: 9781521298367
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 271