A Blade Of Grass

Lewis DeSoto’s assured, tension-filled debut is a story of friendship and betrayal and of the trauma of the land that has shaped post-colonial Africa.

In the wake of tragedy, Märit, a young woman of British descent, remains determined to run her farm in South Africa. But she finds herself in a simmering tug of war between the local Afrikaner community and the farm workers. Märit's only supporter is her housekeeper, Tembi, who is also alone in the world. Together, the women struggle to hold on to the farm, but the encroaching civil war brings out conflicting loyalties that turn the fight for the farm into a fight for their lives.

“Resembles in loose fashion our own master Faulkner’s… novel The Unvanquished.… An intense reading experience… something readers will remember.”  —  Chicago Tribune

“A Blade of Grass never falters. It is quite simply a masterwork by a mature and powerful new voice.”  —   Ottawa Citizen

Lewis DeSoto was born in South Africa and immigrated to Canada as a teenager in the 1960s. There, he trained as a painter rather than a writer and remains more active with the brush than the pen. A Blade of Grass is DeSoto’s debut novel.