Kinders van die Sabbatsee | General Fiction

Esta Steyn

A wild mane of blood-red hair and hundreds of freckles. Green eyes that see into your very soul. Untamed, defiant. This is Lyla, child of the Sabbath Sea.

When she is not tending her herd of goats she nurses her dying stepfather, Stefus Serdyn. And in her shapeless dress she stands tall and unyielding before wealthy Jack Zwiegelaar, the most powerful man in Nonniesbaai, a profiteer who wants to buy up their unspoilt piece of seaside land to extend his fish factory.

But the Sabbath Beach is not for sale. When Stefus dies it will be Lyla’s only home. Her heritage, which she defends with a rage that burns with the purity of fire.

Hawert Hugo experiences this rage in full when he returns to Nonniesbaai after years in the city. Stefus’s other stepchild. Stefus was married to his mother for five years and raised him as his own son. Now the old man would dearly like to see Hawert take care of his ‘sister’.

But while Hawert entrenches himself in the small fishing community and spoils Jack Zwiegelaar’s beautiful, spoilt daughter even more, a terrible secret from the past begins to unravel.

And the Sabbath Sea – which, legend has it, is at its most dangerous on Sundays – plays its part in a suspenseful climax to this unusual tale.