Canadian soldiers tried to kill my relatives. No, not in Afghanistan; in South Africa. And when I say relatives I should more correctly state "ancestors," for the events happened in 1901 during the Anglo-Boer War, or, to be even more exact, during the first Boer War. Yes, there were two, in 1880–81, and the main war in 1899–1902. It is no exaggeration to say that the legacy of the Boer wars shaped the destiny of South Africa right to the present day.
Fred Stenson’s novel The Great Karoo is the story of a handful of Canadian cavalrymen in the Boer War. It is an important and timely novel, with many resonances for Canadians, not least of which is the current conflict in Afghanistan.
The Karoo of the title is an arid semidesert in the centre of South Africa, very different to the savannah and jungle that we usually associate with that part of the world. Stenson takes his characters all the way from the Pincher Creek area of Alberta (which ironically...
Lewis DeSoto is the author of two novels and a biography of Emily Carr. His first novel, A Blade of Grass (HarperCollins, 2004), was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and was an international bestseller.
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