Sun on your Back

‘Dad’s dead, Dee. Mum killed him.’



Diara Kruger is woken by a phone call in the middle of the night. The caller is her older sister Shaan, who lives in Zimbabwe. Their father, Andre, is dead and their mother, Sophia, has confessed to killing him.

Diana immediately flies out to Zimbabwe, the country she escaped from only last year. Although her mother has confessed to accidentally killing her husband, she is tried for murder in a country with a conservative legal system and systemic racism and sexism.

Back in London, Diara meets her old friend from university, Xander, who she has always adored from afar.

A year later, Diara helps her mother and sisters through a traumatic murder trial, at the same time struggling to recover from childhood abuse inflicted on her by her father.

Sophia’s trial unearths painful family secrets and lies. Will Sophia’s fierce feminist lawyer be able to save Sophia from life in prison? Will the judge believe that Sophia acted in self-defence after suffering years of abuse by her husband, and that she had not planned to kill her husband?

Xander comes to court to support Diara and discovers that she has a son, Farish, who Diara has kept secret from him. Will their relationship survive the lies she has told him? ‘Will Diara ever get over her father’s abuse and go on to live a happy, fulfilled life with Xander?’