SOURCE: "A Vision of Birds," in Times Literary Supplement, No. 4845, February 9, 1996, p. 22.

In the following review, Kerrigan focuses on the protagonist of Imaginings of Sand and examines the implications of this fictional creation.

History is in the making in South Africa, the elections of 1994 due to be held in just a few days, yet it is personal news that brings thirty-three-year-old Kristien Müller home from her London exile. An ANC supporter—and, before worldweariness set in, an activist—she has become disenchanted before her time.

Back in the Little Karoo, however, her grandmother retains the capacity to weave spells. Kristien sensed something amiss when Ouma Kristina appeared to her in a vision, riding on the back of a great bird. A phone call from her elder sister Anna, the next day, confirms it: Ouma's house has been firebombed by "terrorists", and Ouma left seriously injured. Kristien must...