Gardening at Night

I love this book. I was prepared to be fairly critical because I know the author and I know that it is semi-autobiographical. I found that she captured a great sense of what growing up as a girl in South Africa was like - well, for white girls in small towns at any rate. And I came out of the novel feeling like I'd met someone new, not like I'd just learned more about someone I already knew. I've bought it for lots of my friends, and they all love it.

This novel is about growing up in Kimberley, the diamond mining town. It is set in post-apartheid South Africa and deals with day to day life in a funny, oblique style. It is a first novel, and I suspect it is very autobiographical.