I absolutely loved this book by George Alagiah.

It's written with such passion and you can tell how much of his life experiences of being in Africa, have made this book feel more real

I look forward to future publications by George with great excitement

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for ARC

I wish to extend my thanks to NetGalley and Canongate Books for this informative and insightful political thriller. Having read some other crime novels set in post-apartheid South Africa, I was very pleased to receive this advanced electronic copy of The Burning Land in return for an honest review.


It would appear to the reader that the freedom fighters' quest for an all-inclusive and just South Africa was only partly fulfilled. Blacks now have greater opportunities, many rising to upper-middle-class and some becoming very wealthy. However, post-apartheid governments have become rife with corruption, bribery, and injustice.

In this challenging and enlightening novel, xenophobia is rampant. Its focus is on land theft. Powerful people are enriching themselves by selling land to foreign enterprises for a profit. This land was stolen from the natives or was land they hoped to own eventually. This resulted in resentment against wealthy foreign buyers, such as British, Chinese, and Arabs. Poor, struggling migrant workers, mainly from Mozambique, are working long hours on the farms for very little pay.

As this beautiful country struggles to redefine itself, it is spinning out of control. The author describes violence, crime, and extortion, with corruption at government levels, within the police force and businesses.

This is a brutal, complex story, as complicated as the new South Africa. I found the beginning slow-paced, hazy and confusing. There were many characters and organizations to sort out, and this took me a long time. Still, everything became abundantly clear later in the book and ended with a satisfying conclusion.

Lindi, a former South African white woman, is working for a conflict resolution agency in the UK. She has lived in England for 20 years but is returning to her home country. Her assignment is to sort out and report what forces behind the turmoil and riots over land. She will meet with a childhood friend, Kagiso. The government once employed him, but he now works for the Soil of Africa charity. There is a secret underground group, The Land Collective, working to stop land sales to foreigners.

Josiah Motlantshe was a leading voice in the struggle for freedom and to end apartheid and went to prison. Now, his ideals and principles have been eroded, and he has become a billionaire
businessman. His wife was left to bring up their children on her own. She tried to install in her son, Lesedi, Joshia's former ideals. Lesedi has become a popular symbol for the nation. He is admired for his fairness despite his family's wealth.

The book begins with the brutal murder of Lesedi. Unknown killers filmed his horrific torture and death. A poor migrant worker from Mozambique was quickly charged with the murder by police. Enraged mobs reacted by killing Mozambique refugee workers and their families and burning their dwellings and belongings.

Lindi has a terrifying bus journey to meet her former friend, Kagiso, the Soil of Africa worker. The bus was carrying frightened fleeing migrants back to Mozambique and was attacked by a rampaging mob. After the driver makes an escape, Lindi is nearly raped by a corrupt policeman at a roadblock but bribes him to let her back on the bus. A priest who protected the migrants befriended Lindi on her arrival at the border town. He was killed after warning her of danger. She learns that Kagiso was the last person known to see Lesedi alive. Lesedi stated he wanted to help Kagiso achieve land reform and informed Kagiso that he intended to expose how the land deals were done and name those involved. He had documents to prove all this.

Kagiso suspects a government-backed assassination of Lesedi and feels the blame is now being placed on himself. Police are watching his mother's home in Johannesburg and his workplace. He feels he is being made a scapegoat for the murder, and he and Lindi must flee the danger. Add to this mix a prominent government official aware of Lesedi's documents proving corruption, his secret meeting with Kagiso, and a vengeful scorned woman from the past. You have some twists, and the tension and suspense escalate.
Who will survive? Who will go to prison? What will the outcome be for the characters and society?

I enjoy reading internationally and this book certainly provided an interesting armchair trip to South Africa. It’s a complex and intricately plotted story that begins as a murder mystery when a scion of a spectacularly wealthy black South African man of a new generation known as Black Diamonds is found killed. It turns out the young man was actually the proverbial apple that rolled pretty far from the tree, with him being more interested in helping farmers to own their land and opposed to having people like his father profit from it and to this end he contacted an organization dedicated to just such a cause. The main story then develops following the south African leader of that organization and a British woman from a UK based nonprofit, the two knew each other growing up and reconnect now in the far from best circumstances in a country that has used the young man’s death to justify its latest spat of antiimmigrant violence.
It’s a slow burning and tonally very serious novel, so it takes a moment to get into, but once you do, you get to appreciate not just the writing, but the general immersiveness of the representation of South Africa as a country scarred and divided, oppressed by both its legacy and potential and unrealized on either scale.
And yes, it is something of a murder mystery in that the death occurs under mysterious circumstances and the culprit isn’t disclosed until the very end, but it mainly serves to highlight the social, political and economic divides than to attract a genre audience.
Not an easy read, but a smart and interesting one and certainly an auspicious debut. Thanks Netgalley.