The tortoise cried its only tear

About this book

It's a black Karoo night and a young woman, covered in blood, is running along a deserted dirt track. Siena must reach Seekoegat Primary School, the only safe space she knows, but it's a long way to run, a three-day ride on a donkey cart. As Siena runs, her story, and the story of her two friends, comes alive. Growing up with her in the margins were Boetie, neglected and wild, and Kriekie, whose mother worked the N1 truck stops. When they meet again as grownups, the three must relive the devastating events that sett them each on a new path. All the while, a spectre moves through the tale: the Karoo tortoise, a creature which holds the wisdom of the ancient landscape and cries a single tear when it dies. Gripping and brushed with the magical, the tortoise cried its only tear is Carol Campbell's third novel, and, like her award-winning debut, tells of the lives of the kerretjiemense of the Great Karoo.