The road leads us away, and our voices rise, clear and certain. We sing to heal Lottie’s mother’s fractured heart. We sing for Darnell, gone so soon, and his father left behind. Our song flies over the fields and into the sky.

We sing the light into being.

Acknowledgments

When the Ground Is Hard has deep roots in my family history. Adele and Lottie’s story is my mother’s story and my aunties’ story. It is also my story. I gave the book its title to honor and show respect to all the women worldwide who give life to my mother’s favorite African proverb, “When the ground is hard, the women dance.”

Thank you and lots of love to my children, Elijah and Sisana, for understanding that Mummy sometimes has to talk to the people in her head at dinner instead of them. Thank you also to my husband, Mark, my first reader extraordinaire, and the only man brave enough to tell me when I’m wrong. I love you. (Yes, I know, babe . . . I still owe you a trip to Fiji.)

Thank you also to my agent, Catherine Drayton from Inkwell Management, who stuck with me through difficult times and provided me with great insight. I’m so grateful you have my back.

Lastly, thank you to my editor, Stacey Barney of Putnam Books, who believed in the book at every stage and asked me all the right questions to help me make it better.

About the Author

Photo credit: Darryl Robinson

After her family migrated to Australia to escape apartheid, MALLA NUNN graduated with a double degree in English and history and then earned a master of arts in theater studies from Villanova University. Faced with a life of chronic under-employment, she dabbled in acting and screenwriting. She wrote and directed three award-winning films, including Servant of the Ancestors, which won best documentary awards at film festivals in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Zanzibar and was shown on national television in Australia. She married in a traditional Swazi ceremony. Her bride price was eighteen cows. She now lives and works in Sydney, Australia.

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