The Sentinel
By Madge Swindells
A powerful story of loyalty and love
Liza Frank has always assumed she was white. Accustomed to the privileges of South Africa’s apartheid system, the shock news that she is to be reclassified as ‘coloured’ comes as a crushing blow, forcing her to flee onto the harsh streets of Johannesburg and cutting her off from her childhood sweetheart Pieter – for mixed-race relations are strictly forbidden.
Joining the army in an attempt to forget, Pieter finds his Afrikaner background soon makes him a pawn in a racist system he has never really questioned. And when he is asked to eliminate an ANC member, formerly a childhood friend, his resolve is tested as never before. Sentinel to values that are rooted in prejudice, only through the rediscovery of love can Pieter begin to atone for his actions.
Reaching its gripping climax as the chains of apartheid are being stripped away, THE SENTINEL is a tremendously powerful story of loyalty and love, with characters as much in turmoil as the country they all feel is their own.
Madge Swindells was born and educated in England. As a teenager, she emigrated to South Africa where she studied archaeology at Cape Town University. Later, in England, she was a Fleet Street journalist and the manager of her own publishing company. Her earlier novels, Summer Harvest, Song of the Wind, Shadows on the Snow, The Corsican Woman, Edelweiss and Harvesting the Past were international bestsellers and have been translated into eight languages. She lives in South Africa.
