Then a Wind Blew is set in the final months of the war in Rhodesia, before it became Zimbabwe, and the story unfolds through the voices of three women.

Susan Haig has lost one son in the war and seen her other son declared ‘unfit for duty’’. Nyanye Maseka has fled with her sister to a guerrilla camp in Mozambique, her home village destroyed, her mother missing. Beth Lytton is a nun in a church mission in an African Reserve, watching her adopted country tear itself apart.

The three women have nothing in common. Yet the events of war conspire to draw them into each other’s lives in a way that none of them could have imagined. This absorbing and sensitive novel develops and intertwines their stories, showing us the ugliness of war for women caught up in it and reminding us that, in the end, we all depend on each other.

For a YouTube video on the book (author interview, and readings by leading actors), see:

Categories Africa Fiction

Tags African Books Collective Jacana Media Kay Powell New books New releases Then a Wind Blew Weaver Press