Bundu tells the story of one summer at an output hospital on the South Africa-Mozambique border trying to deal with an influx of starving people. The area has been in drought for nearly three years, and the situation is desperate. The narrator is a scientist doing his best to stay uninvolved, but he's fallen in love with one of the nurses. He enlists another eccentric loner in a bold plan to get the growing crowd of refugees to safety.
As you can tell from the summary, the book could have easily been overly sentimental or colorful. But Barnard's narrator sticks mostly to relating the facts, addressing the larger themes lightly and obliquely. It's underwritten in an effective way. It also features lots of enjoyable Afrikaans atmosphere, so that our hero drives his bakkie through dongas and tambookies to reach his kraal in the kloof.
As you can tell from the summary, the book could have easily been overly sentimental or colorful. But Barnard's narrator sticks mostly to relating the facts, addressing the larger themes lightly and obliquely. It's underwritten in an effective way. It also features lots of enjoyable Afrikaans atmosphere, so that our hero drives his bakkie through dongas and tambookies to reach his kraal in the kloof.
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