Set in an unnamed colonial city, this novel centers around Soraya, a servant, and her mistress Mrs. Hattingh. The pair develops a strained employee-employer relationship (to put it mildly). In anticipation of her son’s visit from London, Mrs. Hattingh obsesses about cleaning her house, manipulating Soraya to ensure she stays on full-time. The narrative combines elements of suspense and the supernatural, but is driven right along by Davids’s precise, enchanting prose.
