When the Ground Is Hard

In 1960s Swaziland (now Eswatini), Adele Joubert is a mixed-race girl at a boarding school where social status is everything. The school's rigid hierarchy mirrors the country's racial and class divisions: white students at the top, mixed-race students in the middle, and Black students at the bottom. Adele has spent years navigating this system, clinging to her position by following the rules and staying close to the right people.

When she is paired as roommates with Lottie Diamond, a poor white girl with no social standing, Adele is furious. Lottie's presence threatens Adele's carefully constructed social position. But as the two girls are forced together, they discover common ground—and when they stumble upon a buried secret on the school grounds, their investigation reveals truths about the school, the country, and themselves that neither expected. Malla Nunn (who grew up in Swaziland before emigrating to Australia) writes with intimate knowledge of the setting, creating a story that is simultaneously a boarding-school friendship tale, a mystery, and a sharp examination of how colonialism and racial hierarchies distort young lives.

Available at Popular bookstores, Kinokuniya, and the Singapore National Library.