DONKERHART

317pp., paperback, Human & Rousseau, Cape Town, 2026

ISBN: 9780798186209

Afrikaans psychological thriller

After her two-year-old daughter, Mia, disappeared Tilla Allers closed her veterinary practice and left her teenage daughter with her ex-husband to live a reclusive life on the family farm in Bremel. When a young filmmaker arrives in Bremel to produce a documentary about Mia’s disappearance the villagers start speculating about what happened six years previously, and Tilla fears that if Mia's remains are finally found and certain family secrets are uncovered, her carefully constructed life will collapse.

Henda Olivier grew up in the Free State and now lives in New Zealand. She is the author of the novels Die goeie suster and Onder water.