This much-awaited second novel, following Nkosi’s award-winning Mating Birds, is a tour de force of crafted writing. Nkosi takes us to mansions and mountain hideouts, where we meet a dazzling variety of characters: the serene Princess Madi, Kristina the small-town temptress and Joe Blane, the sinister Central Committee man. Switching from comedy to sensitive observation to action and back, there are no dull patches in this complex plot. In Underground People ‘the struggle’ is the story.