Growing up in Mthatha, light-skinned Karabo is called ‘yellowbone’. She often hears her parents argue, not realising her complexion, and questions surrounding her paternity, is the cause. People expect ‘exotic’ Karabo to coast through life on her looks. But she has high aspirations and goes to London to study architecture.

When Karabo is invited to a private recital, a priceless antique violin binds her fate to that of virtuoso André Potgieter who came to London to hide his secret – though no saint, he sees angels when he plays a beautiful piece of music. Whether it is synaesthesia or something otherworldly, he cannot say. All he knows is that he would do anything to keep seeing the engele, but these days they rarely come to him.

Events on the night of the recital cause Karabo to run away to Ghana to the refuge of her father, but her plans go horribly wrong. And André soon follows for his own selfish reasons.

Enthralling and powerfully written, Yellowbone is a tour de force.

Cash Tshabalala is a notoriously brutal money-lender and snazzy dresser who operates in Scottsville, Soweto, from a kiosk he calls, ‘The Last Best Hope Financial Service’. Unashamedly violent when the need arises, Cash’s willingness to lend where reputable banks fear to tread has earned him a reluctant but steady clientele. A chance meeting between Cash and Alasdair Nicholson, a closet drug user and only son of a fabulously wealthy white family, changes both their lives forever. Desperate for a fix, Alasdair drives to Scottsville to buy drugs, only to discover he doesn’t have enough money on him and he has to borrow what he needs from Cash. When Alasdair fails to keep his side of the transaction, Cash declares war on the Nicholson family and events spin dangerously out of control, eventually becoming a matter of national importance when populist activists step in, intent on realising their own agendas. The conflict between Cash and the Nicholson family cleverly exposes the seeping wounds that still bedevil South African interactions two decades after the end of apartheid, forcing both communities to recognise the harsh realities of their past.