Rainbow's End

Celebrated journalist Lauren St John “bears witness to a remarkable story” (Publishers Weekly) in this striking memoir of a childhood spent amid the constant terror and brutality of the Rhodesian civil war.

In the 1970s, Lauren’s family moves from South Africa to Rhodesia so her father can join the white minority fighting against the black majority’s “terrorism.” Soon settled on a breathtaking farm that seems like paradise, young Lauren brings her youthful enthusiasm to encounters with lions, crocodiles, and deadly snakes. She even makes friends with a graceful giraffe named Jenny. But natural splendor cannot disguise the specter of war, which hangs over the land and fills every day with peril and uncertainty.

More than a recollection of a troubled past, Rainbow’s End is a fascinating examination of racism, twisted politics, parent-child relationships, and identity.