A biography of Nelson Mandela, who spent twenty-seven years in jail for his political beliefs, focusing on his fight against apartheid, South Africa's system of segregation and oppression based on color.
Newly arrived in England from South Africa, a fifteen-year-old's family deteriorates, as the effects of living under apartheid take a toll on every aspect of the family members' lives.
Tells the story of eleven-year-old Manus, a young white boy in 1970s South Africa, whose illusions about his happy family are shattered by the arrival of a stranger, interwoven with entries by Manus as an adult, fighting another country's war.