Daan van der Walt, a Latin-quoting, God-fearing former Kalahari farmer, visits his estranged son in China. He soon finds himself on a difficult path (the Dao of the title) to come to terms with his feelings of remorse and guilt. He sets out to write his Historia, or confessions, in the form of letters to his deceased wife and imaginary observations to his beloved dog. An astounding debut by an octogenarian author; the award winning Afrikaans novel was translated by Michiel Heyns.