Crimson Sands, by Jeremy Vearey (used)

Second-hand copy — condition: like new.

1904. Dirk Aruseb was seventeen years old when Abraham Morris fetched him from the orphanage in Pella to join the Bondelswarts. Dirk could not wait to fight alongside its leader, Kaptein Jakob Marengo, against the Schutztruppe.

But at Schansvlakte, high in the Great Karas Mountains of Namaland, Dirk first had to find and master himself: Be humble, be patient, and know that war is not a game. Find your eland, tame your butcherbird.

For Dirk, war was an adventure. He had little interest in the elders' wisdom.

Crimson Sands is an historical novel set in Namaland. It is an epic, panoramic story of a war against tyranny, traversing the southwest of Africa from Tsumeb to Upington, from internment camps in Lüderitzbucht to the dry riverbeds of the Fish River Canyon. Jeremy Vearey tells a mesmerising tale across a landscape of sand, shrub and dune, evoking voices and stories long buried.

NB Publishers, 2023, 352 pages.