Leaving Oxford and the shocking death of her father behind, Koliwe travels to AIDS-ravaged Eswatini to take a job as an aid worker. The Southern Africa she encounters is a far cry from her father’s stories.
As she becomes enmeshed with Thandi, a local girl hiding a disturbing past, Koliwe feels increasingly split between her English identity and her rediscovered African roots.
When Thandi goes missing, Koliwe's search for truth leads her deep into the mountains, where the harsh realities of wealth, poverty, tradition and modernity, clash.
Harrowing yet richly evocative, Lying Perfectly Still, written from an insider's perspective, offers a searing exposé of the exploitation that has plagued the international development sector.