RACHEL'S BLUE by Zakes Mda

After a few stalls of beets, kale and zucchinis, and of candles made from beeswax and shaped into angels by a beekeeper who also sells bottled honey, Jason stops to listen to another busker...He concludes that it is not for her voice - rather airy and desperate - that her open guitar case is bristling with greenbacks. It is for her strawberry blonde bangs peeping out from under her hat, and her deep blue eyes, and her willowy stature and her brown gingham prairie skirt, and her bare feet with tan lines drawn by sandals, and her black t-shirt with 'Appalachia Active' in big white letters across her breasts - the entire wholesome package that stands before him. She is trying hard to make her voice sound full-bodied and round, but she was not born for singing. She loses a beat to say thank you after Jason deposits a single, and then she hurries up to catch up with the song before is goes out of control. At that moment Jason recognises her. Rachel. Rachel Boucher from Jensen Township.

Athens County, Ohio. When Rachel Boucher and Jason de Klerk meet again - five years after high school - they immediately renew their friendship. But for Jason their friendship is just a stepping stone to something more - a romantic union that seems to have the blessing of the whole community. That is until Rachel becomes involved with Skye Riley. As Skye and Rachel grow ever closer, Jason's anger at the relationship boils over into violence, violence that turns the community on its head, setting old friends and neighbours against one another. But this is just a taste of things to come, as it turns out, Rachel is pregnant...

Soft cover, good condition. The cover shows very minor signs of wear.