Softness of the Lime — Maxine Case

Softness of the Lime is a captivating love story about a Dutch slave owner, Geert, and his slave, Lena, set in the 1700s in the Cape Colony. Born free in the Highlands of Madagascar, Lena is sold into slavery and transported to the Cape, where she is bought by Geert's wealthy father. The emotionally damaged Geert, who takes over his deceased father's estates and businesses at the age of twenty-two, falls in love with Lena. Their cloistered relationship produces a daughter, who remains within the confines of the house until Geert marries to rescue himself from financial hardship and loss of social status, and his new wife demands that the child be removed from the household. But Geert refuses to free Lena, and she remains in the house, where she simultaneously loves and loathes her master. Softness of the Lime is a compelling account of degrees of love in a hostile landscape. It captures the appalling losses, isolation and scarred hearts of slaves, and it tells of traditions old and emerging, at a time when competition for ownership of almost everything in the Cape was at its peak. Spanning more than eighty years, the novel concludes in 1854, twenty years after the abolition of slavery in the Cape Colony.