Heartwarming yet tough, this unforgettable story centers around a brave, young black girl named Joonie from Grassy Park, South Africa. When both her uncle and local priest attempt to take sexual advantage of her, Joonie refuses their advances. For all her fortitude, however, Joonie is slow to learn from the past--especially with respect to relationships--and she soon finds herself single and pregnant. A journey of self-discovery, this narrative chronicles Joonie's coping with a shocking revelation about her identity in a foreign country and celebrates her indomitable spirit.

Set in the early 1830s, The Slave Book recounts the last five years of slavery at the Cape of Good Hope.

The novel opens with Sangora van Java on the block, a 'Mohametan' slave who is being sold for preaching his belief to others. Andries de Villiers, a hard-nosed wine farmer, purchases Sangora, despite his suspicion that the tall slave could spell trouble. On impulse, he also bids for Sangora's 16-year-old stepdaughter, Somiela, but not for the girl's mother - thereby separating the family.

The first days on Zoetewater are traumatic, but both father and stepdaughter survive and find comfort in the unity amongst the slaves on the farm. It is when Harman Kloot, an Afrikaner of mixed blood, arrives from the interior that a second, major crisis develops - Harman is torn between duty to his group and the love of a girl who belongs to a different culture and faith.

Whatever decision he makes will be seen as betrayal, either of his own people or of the slave community with whom he has found common ground.

In her award-winning novel, Eyes of the Sky, Rayda Jacobs explores the complex and interconnected lives of the settlers and the enslaved in eighteenth century South Africa. Controlled by the Dutch for over a century, The Cape of Good Hope has witnessed the horrific enslavement of over sixty thousand men and women. In this impactful historical novel, we follow the saga of the Kloots; an old farming family recently settled on the edge of Cape Colony in the late eighteenth century. As they struggle to live off the the harsh, barren landscape, tensions begin to rise to breaking point. While some are determined to despise the indigenous inhabitants of the Cape, one young member of the family, Harman, takes it upon himself to bridge the gap between the two groups and prevent them from mutual destruction. To fail risks the extinction of them all. Full of dark history and unexpected twists, Eyes of the Sky is a remarkable tale of identity, betrayal, forbidden love, and the fusing of people and cultures.