To the Volcano

New collection of short stories from acclaimed Oxford-based South African author that tracks lives across continents from the perspective of the southern hemisphere – its light, its seas, its sensibilities. These are stories of people caught up in a world that tilts seductively, sometimes dangerously, between south and north, between ambition and tradition, between light and dark. Her characters are poised to leave or on the point of return; often caught in limbo, haunted by their histories and veering between possibilities. An African student in England longs for her desert home; a shy Argentinian travel agent agonizes about joining her boyfriend in New York; a soldier is pursued by his past; a writer's widow fends off the attentions of his predatory biographer. From story to story we walk through radically different worlds and journeys packed with hopes and ideals. Sharp, tender, and always arresting, these exquisitely written pieces crackle with luminous insights as characters struggle to find contentment – with their pasts, with one another, and with themselves.



Elleke Boehmer is the author of five novels including Screens against the Sky (shortlisted for the David Higham Prize), Bloodlines (shortlisted for the Sanlam Prize), Nile Baby, and The Shouting in the Dark (longlisted for the Sunday Times prize). Born in South Africa, she lives in Oxford where she is Professor of World Literature in English at the University of Oxford. Her edition of Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys was a bestseller, and her acclaimed biography of Nelson Mandela has been translated into several languages. She has published several other books including Stories of Women, the anthology Empire Writing, Postcolonial Poetics, and Indian Arrivals: Networks of British Empire which won the ESSE 2015-16 Prize. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.