The Power of the Stone, Colin Gunston, self published, ISBN: 9780620000000
THE Power of the Stone will take the reader through the turbulent years of South African history, spanning the Great Trek, the discovery of diamonds and the second Anglo Boer War.
Greed, crime, romance, and tragedy are captured in this fast-moving novel.
Matimba, a young Shangaan boy, the son of a Chief, murders his twin brother in the belief that the murder is a justified sacrifice. From a stranger who passes through his village, he learns of the Kimberley diamond fields and becomes convinced that the precious stones afford the owner supernatural powers.
Escaping the wrath of his father he flees into the wilderness. Unconscious and on death’s door he is found and sheltered by Percy FitzPatrick, operating a transport wagon business between Delagoa Bay and Lydenburg.
Eventually, the young man finds himself in Kimberley where he pulls off a daring and ruthless robbery, stealing a diamond of immense wealth.
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On the run from detectives hired by Cecil John Rhodes, the boy eventually succumbs to an agonising and lonely death.
Years later and in the midst of the Boer War a badly wounded British Cavalry Officer is rescued and cared for by a Boer family. Under most unusual circumstances the officer and the daughter of Pieter Prinsloo, a staunch Boer riding on commando with General Jan Smuts, fall hopelessly in love.
Falsely accused of murder the couple is on the run, desperately evading both British and Boer patrols. Their fortunes change when they stumble upon the skeletal remains of the young Shangaan.
The story embraces those admirable human emotions that lie deep, and often hidden, within each one of us. Of love, friendship, and compassion that transcends prejudices born out of greed, superstition, and misunderstanding between races, nationalities, and gender.
The book can be purchased at www.smashwords.com/books/view/912393.
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