WHITE DOG FELL FROM THE SKY

Apartheid South Africa, 1976. Isaac Muthethe, a medical student, witnesses the brutal murder of his friend by the predominately white South African Defense Force. He flees the country, leaving his family behind and seeking asylum in neighboring Botswana, where he finds work as a gardener for Alice Mendelssohn, a white American. Alice’s own life is in upheaval between her failing marriage, her abandoned PhD studies and her slow adjustment to the language, politics and landscape of life in Africa. Both outsiders, Alice and Isaac form an unlikely friendship. When Alice heads into the African bush on a work-related trip, she is confronted with both temptation and tragedy.

Meanwhile, Isaac is arrested, deported, imprisoned and tortured. As Isaac fights for his dignity and his life, his young sister and brother arrive at Alice’s doorstep. The decisions that Alice must make entwine her life with Isaac’s in ways that neither of them could have anticipated. Filled with breathtaking descriptions of the harsh and beautiful landscape of Botswana and the difficult emotional terrain within all of us, White Dog Fell from the Sky is a poignant novel of love, friendship, race and politics. Eleanor Morse has written a totally engrossing novel of the interconnectedness of lives, the role of fate and the possibility of faith in a world that includes both the goodness and the unspeakable brutality of human beings.