Summary: In her debut novel, A CONSPIRACY OF MOTHERS, Colleen van Niekerk tells the tale of three mothers whose lives intersect during a generation-defining period in South Africa’s history of apartheid. Author Susan Bernhard says A CONSPIRACY OF MOTHERS is “a brilliant novel to be read alongside Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime and Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste.” A CONSPIRACY OF MOTHERS is the compelling tale of three mothers whose lives intersect during a generationdefining period in South Africa’s history. A bold new voice in literary fiction, van Niekerk—herself born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa—opens her story with traumatized artist Yolanda Petersen returning from the Appalachian foothills to the land of her youth at the behest of her mother. While there Yolanda longs to reconnect with her estranged daughter, Ingrid, the product of an illegal mixed-race affair with a white man. But Ingrid is missing, and as Yolanda quickly discovers, she isn’t the only woman in Cape Town desperate to protect her own. Ingrid’s very existence is proof of a white man’s crime, and that man’s mother will do anything―even kill―to ensure the truth remains buried. An evocative novel set during a defining period in history, A CONSPIRACY OF MOTHERS tells a gripping story of love and betray
