Set in South Africa experiencing the birth pangs of democracy, Imaginings of Sand, by Andre Brink (Minerva, £7.99 in UK), brings us to the fast-fading life of an old woman whose granddaughter, Kristien Muller, returns from England to spend time with her and listen to the tales of magical women, many with superhuman strength. Throughout this book, we are given glimpses of the dark stain left by the system of apartheid, and of a country hurtling towards a new and open existence which by its very nature will produce many casualties. The author has succeeded in mixing politics and anthropology without sacrificing the plausibility of the central characters, or swamping the reader.