1989.

The African Jazz Pioneers are in full swing. Coltrane's club is hopping. Glasses and plates are pushed aside as the room dances.

What's so special?

Look around. The faces are black, brown and white. It's Durban, South Africa. It's apartheid. It's illegal.

When a pair of young music lovers decide to follow their dreams and open a jazz club to showcase the musicians whose irrepressible songs they have grown up with, they have little idea of what stark choices they will be facing as the political situation heats up and riots tear through the surrounding townships.

An epic tale that starts in the depths of a Ukrainian shtetl and winds its way back and forth across oceans, history and memory, this is a story of individual choice and of the fate of nations.

About the author

Leonora Meriel grew up in London, UK, but draws much of her inspiration from her years living in Ukraine, where she was co-founder of Ukraine's largest bookshop. Her debut novel, The Woman Behind the Waterfall, is set in western Ukraine and is a celebration of Ukrainian culture, language and custom. Her novel And Breathe centres on a Ukrainian oligarch and her latest novel Mbaqanga Nights explores Ukrainian immigration at the turn of the nineteenth century. Her work has been hailed as "strange and beautiful" by writer Esther Freud, "ambitious and thought-provoking" by Kirkus Reviews, and "a literary work of art" by Richmond Magazine.