Far future, Earth. 4th novel. Jacket illustration by Jim Burns. Retitled in the US as: The Broken Land .
"The Land is the last remaining province of a decaying Empire, separated from it by a vast river. For millennia the Land has been blessed by biotechnology -- everything, from housing to transportation, is organically grown, while the dead, absorbed in Ancestor Trees, form a vast information net, the Dreaming.
"Such a place should be a paradise, but the Land is troubled, divided by religious conflict between Proclaimer and Confessor, and by political conflict between the forces of the Emperor and those, like the warriors of Destiny, who would see the land free of the technocratic Imperial yoke.
"When conflict comes to the small town of Chepsenyt, Mathembe Fileli and her family are made refugees. In her teens, Mathembe has never spoken, by choice. Now she finds herself embarking on a journey into the unknown with her parents, her rebellious brother and the head of her irascible Grandfather, as vociferous in death as he had been in life. One by one, the family is split up and Mathembi is finally alone. She sets out to find them, a small, mute girl in a world of glory, squalor and terror. Her journey through countryside and teeming city, through refugee camps and down the great River forms a compulsive story, atmospheric, lyrical and moving....
"Hearts, Hands and Voices is his most powerful work to date, a haunting work of science fiction with a strong relevance for the contemporary world." [jacket blurb, UK hbk, 1992]
"'Grandfather was a tree. Father grew trux, in fifteen colours. Mother could sing the double-helix song, sing it right into the hearts of living things and change them'. So begins Mathembe's tale. The tale of her life in The Land, before the conflict between Proclaimer and Confessor finally spilt over into her small town life and scattered it to the four winds.
"It is a tale of a small mute girl struggling to re-unite her family in a world full of angels, glory, squalor and blood." [jacket blurb, UK pbk, 1993]
"Poetic and evocative imagery." --Henry W.Targowski (in Mark/Space , 1995).
Highly recommended.
