A review by berndm
In the Garden of the Fugitives by Ceridwen Dovey

3.0

The book certainly kept me reading and entertained, but ultimately it left me empty. The story is told in two intertwined narratives, through letters exchanged between the two protagonists. The main issue is that the two stories never quite gel - there is simply no reason for both to be there even if they are connected on the surface. Unfortunately, one of the two stories, which details the unchanging infatuation of a rich, privileged youth with a student, is plain boring. The other one, which is concerned with a young woman processing her feelings of guilt for having grown up as a white child during the apartheid is interesting in itself but has no deep connection to the first story line. I don’t regret spending time with the book, but I couldn’t build any real connection to the characters or their actions.