The Immortalites

“It is our religion” says an Eastern Cape settler in Claire Robertson’s new novel, The Immortalites. She means land – so often a sort of lead character in South African stories. It’s the 1830s and the Eastern Cape is in the throes of its frontier wars involving the long-settled Xhosa and recently arrived British settlers. Ellen Kent is one such new arrival. Appointed governess to a family making a new life in a new country, she’s robbed of her innocence on board the ship on which she travels to the colony – so when she disembarks, it’s in a shroud of shame with no job, and she must make her own way. She’s adopted by a wily cavalryman, Captain Makepeace, who uses her as an accessory in his moneymaking schemes as they move among the British soldiers, settlers and Boers. They endure wonder, cruelty and sadness as the English raze the crops of the people whose land they mean to seize. “Was this sticky, flyblown, afraid and ashamed business really what was meant by war?” Ellen wonders. She witnesses atrocities on both sides and slowly, in this tenuous, provisional environment, she learns to make roots. This microcosmic story of South Africa sees enmity and ugliness undone by love and loyalty – and perhaps it is a paean to Robertson’s own Eastern Cape ancestry.