SOURCE: "Storm Over Soweta," in Washington Post Book World, November 5, 1978, Sect. G, p. 8

In the following review of Rumours of Rain, Hoagland provides a brief overview of some of Brink's other work and considers the social relevance of the novel under review.

André Brink is a member of the only white tribe the African continent has ever produced—the 2.5 million Calvinist, Dutch-speaking Afrikaners descended of Europeans who first came to South Africa 300 years ago. Supported by two million English speaking whites, the Afrikaners rule the country's 20 million blacks through the harsh system of Apartheid.

Brink's birthright as an Afrikaner gives him a ringside seat at the racial Armageddon his book suggests is coming for South Africa, as surely as rain comes to wash away a parching drought. His courage and vision in describing his land's dilemmas have made him a tribal outcast, however. An earlier novel, Looking on...