★《紐約客》年度好書
★《紐約時報》、《華盛頓郵報》、《洛杉磯時報》、《Bookriot》、《浮華世界》一致評選最佳新書
★ 2020年Dinaane處女作小說獎
★ 2021年南非人文社會科學（HSS）小說獎
★ 2021年約翰尼斯堡大學南非英文寫作獎
★ 2021年南非文學獎英文小說類首次出版作者獎
★ 2021年 InWords 文學獎（TILA）
★ 2021年《星期日泰晤士報》CNA文學獎入圍


In 1927, South Africa passes the Immorality Act, prohibiting sexual intercourse between “Europeans” (white people) and “natives” (Black people). Those who break the draconian new law face imprisonment—for men of up to five years; for women, four years.

Abram and his wife Alisa have their share of marital problems, but they also have a comfortable life in South Africa with their two young girls. But then the Act is passed. Alisa is black, and their two children are now evidence of their involvement in a union that has been criminalized by the state.

At first, Alisa and Abram question how they’ll be affected by the Act, but then officials start asking questions at the girls’ school, and their estate is catalogued for potential disbursement. Abram is at a loss as to how to protect his young family from the grinding machinery of the law, whose worst discriminations have until now been kept at bay by the family’s economic privilege. And with this, his hesitation, the couple’s bond is tattered.

Alisa, who is Jamaican and the descendant of slaves, was adopted by a wealthy white British couple, who raised her as their child. But as she grew older and realized that the prejudices of British society made no allowance for her, she journeyed to South Africa where she met Abram. In the aftermath of the Immorality Act, she comes to a heartbreaking conclusion based on her past and collective history – and she commits her own devastating act, one that will reverberate through their entire family’s lives.