Sarnau e Mwando protagonizam esta estória de amor. Da juventude à idade madura, com eles percorremos os dias, os meses, os anos, os encontros e os desencontros, a dolorosa separação, o desespero, o sofrimento e a alegria, as lágrimas e os sorrisos. Atravessamos cidades e aldeias, convivemos com a tradição, aprendemos os costumes e os hábitos de um povo. Sarnau vai crescendo e amadurecendo sob o nosso olhar. Impossível não admirar a coragem, a determinação, o orgulho e a humildade, a firmeza e o carácter desta mulher. E a sua fidelidade, mesmo nas circunstâncias mais adversas, ao amor. Ao seu primeiro e único amor. Mas haverá um reencontro? Serão Sarnau e Mwando capazes de apagar um tão longo e trágico passado? Existirá ainda para eles um futuro a partilhar? «Tu foste para mim vida, angústia, pesadelo. Cantei para ti baladas de amor ao vento. Eras para mim o mar e eu o teu sal. No abismo, não encontrei a tua mão.» Sarnau, tu que assim falaste a Mwando, chegarás a encontrar um pouco de paz? Voltarás a conseguir esboçar no rosto o teu lindo sorriso, há muito perdido no tempo? Abrirás enfim os braços para neles abrigares o amor? Ouvirás a melodia que o vento espalha no universo?

Two oppositional couples structure this novel: polygamy vs. monogamy and real world vs. mythical world. The divides run close to one another but are not identical. The complicated relations in a polygamous household which easily might lead to suppression and humiliation of one woman are revealed by Chiziane in a quite ruthless way. This distinguishes the novel from the more introspective approach of Mariama Bâ in So long a letter or the humourous picture of an overstrained man that Ousmane Sèmbene painted in Xala. The monogamous relation between Sarnau and Mwando proves to be nothing better for the woman, because Mwando leaves her easily regardless of Sarnau's feelings as soon as things are getting too hot for him. He's not thinking about how she might earn a living or manage other aspects of life. Sarnau builds a life for herself and her two illegitimate children (in addition to the three she left back in her home village) as a petty greengrocer at the outskirts of Maputo, but this doesn't result in self-determination as she's still responsible for the children. So the difference to her living with the one or the other man is only marginal.

The mythical world in the form of the ancestors, of ghosts and witchcraft is omnipresent in the village, but it doesn't matter too much in the city. It's interwoven with the real world and influences the life of men in many respects, but sometimes it's just used to hide very human activities. Besides a fundamentally different perception of the mythical world in African civilizations the use of the mythical world might well be a result of Chiziane's affinity to phantastic literature although she decided to write down more important things first. Here is a starting point to combine both, and she succeeded well in this.

Perhaps some readers might be a little bit confused by the switching between Sarnau as a first-person narrator and the third-person narrator when it comes to Mwando. I've just noticed it once in the beginning, afterwards the story just flowed gently over it on its way. I definitely have to buy Chiziane's other books!

Most likely the book is still with the previous journaler, I had only asked for the BCID for my own journal entry. But I don't want it on my shelf anymore with a misleading status, therefore this entry.