Introduction by M G Vassanji

"Caught between memory and dreaming, the hopeful exile weaves a comforting performance out of a tale of agony.''

The place is white-ruled Rhodesia of the seventies (now Zimbabwe), the exile the African in his or her own land. Young men and women flee from their villages to join the freedom fighters in the forests.

These stories, set during the years of the armed struggle, tell of the other struggle, that of survival of those who stayed behind. Told essentially from the women's point of view, in lyrical but unaffected prose, the stories recreate the dark atmosphere of those months full of fear and hope.