Karoliena Kapp is ’n alleenkind. Haar pa is vroeg-vroeg deur ’n weerligstraal doodgeslaan en sy het die bos aanvaar as haar oermoeder. Nog voordat sy twintig is, trou sy met Johannes en moet sy haar plek as dorpsvrou volstaan. Maar Karoliena gebruik die eerste kans om weg te loop. Die dag ná die troue weet sy: Sy het verkeerd gekies. Sy het van die bos af weggevlug en haar vryheid verruil vir ’n kou. Nou is sy bang, en sy vat die pad terug.

Die driejarige seuntjie van Elias en Barta van Rooyen raak spoorloos weg in die Knysna-bos. In die Lange Kloof, anderkant die berg, ontferm Fiela Komoetie haar oor ’n weggooilam wat een nag voor haar deur kom huil. Die een kind is Lukas, die ander Benjamin. Is dit dieselfde kind? Dié raaisel word nege jaar later oopgekrap deur twee sensusmanne wat die wit kind met die blou oë by ’n bruin gesin in die Lange Kloof kry.

Fiela se kind is ’n boek met ’n warm hartklop, dit is ’n boek oor moederliefde, oor liefde wat oor alle grense heen strek.

“Hierdie roman bevestig op skitterende wyse dat min mense by Dalene Matthee kan kers vashou as dit by die vertelkuns op sy eerste en onderhoudendste kom.” - André P. Brink, Rapport

Born and bred into the tawny magnificence of Africa, Saul would fight to save the vanishing world of his inheritance. Home of the wild elephants and the fiercely independent families of woodcutters, the Knysna forest is under threat from the exploitative greed of the timber merchants, and the ruthless plundering of the ivory hunters. Saul Barnard is a man with a self imposed mission - to halt the wanton destruction. For years he has protected the forest from intruders, finding a strange mystical kinship with the spirit of Old Foot, the indomitable and majestic elephant. Then when the word goes round that Old Foot is on the rampage, Saul is propelled towards a terrible confrontation that will change his future, for ever.

Die driejarige seuntjie van Elias en Barta van Rooyen raak spoorloos weg in die Knysna-bos. In die Lange Kloof, anderkant die berg, ontferm Fiela Komoetie haar oor ‘n “weggooilam” wat een nag voor haar deur kom huil. Die een kind is Lukas, die ander Benjamin. Is dit dieselfde kind? Dié raaisel word nege jaar later oopgekrap deur twee sensusmanne wat die wit kind met die blou oë by ‘n bruin gesin in die Lange Kloof kry.

In Africa, a child wanders too far into the Knysna Forest. He never returns. Nine years later, two government officials, working on a census, find a white child living with a coloured family in the mountains on the other side of the forest. They take him away from the stricken Fiela, who has brought him up, and give him back to his 'original' family. Whipped into using a new name and calling strangers 'ma' and 'pa', Benjamin is so stunned that he cannot cry and waits for Fiela to reclaim him. But Fiela, powerless before authority, never comes. So Benjamin has to grow up before he can go in search of the truth.

Dalene Matthee se tweede roman uit die bekende en gewilde Knysnabos-trilogie. Die bruin vrou Fiela Komoetie het haar wit vondelingkind Benjamin met liefde en trots grootgemaak, tot die dag dat die sensusmanne hom kom haal het. Jare later is dit Benjamin / Lukas self wat worstel met die vraag: wie is ek?

'n Houtkapper met 'n rustelose siel. 'n Legendariese olifantbul wat losbreek van sy trop . . . In die groen skemerwereld van die Outeniekwa loop hulle kringpaaie. Saul Barnard, deur sy mense verwerp en deur gewetenlose houtkopers tot kneg verneder; Oupoot, eindeloos agtervolg deur jagters. 'n Man en sy dier-broer - saamgegooi in 'n ongerepte oerbos, wat stuk vir stuk deur gouddelwers, boskappers en ander uitroeiers vernietig word."

A small child is lost in an African forest. He is found by and cared for by a family he comes to regard and love as his own, becoming Fiela's child. The fact that she is black and he is white is irrelevant - until the bureaucrats and the law get to work.;This volume is part of the "New Longman Literature" series of modern and classic novels, short stories and plays. Each book in the series provides the complete, original text; a section by or about the writer; and a study programme and guidance on keeping a reading log.

Set in nineteenth-century rural Africa, Fiela's Child tells the gripping story of Fiela Komoetie and a white, three-year old child, Benjamin, whom she finds crying on her doorstep. For nine years Fiela raises Benjamin as one of her own children. But when census takers discover Benjamin, they send him to an illiterate white family of woodcutters who claim him as their son. What follows is Benjamin's search for his identity and the fundamental changes affecting the white and black families who claim him.
Everything a novel can be: convincing, thought-provoking, upsetting, unforgettable, and timeless.--Grace Ingoldby, New Statesman
Fiela's Child is a parade that broadens and humanizes our understanding of the conflicts still affecting South Africa today.--Francis Levy, New York Times Book Review
A powerful creation of time and place with dark threads of destiny and oppression and its roots in the almost Biblical soil of a storyteller's art.--Christopher Wordsworth, The Guardian
The characters in the novel live and breathe; and the landscape is so brightly painted that the trees, birds, elephants, and rivers of old South Africa are characters themselves. A book not to miss.--Kirkus Reviews