About the Book

In this extraordinary work, the author has adopted the Victorian linguistic conventions of the period. This imparts necessary authenticity to a novel exploring the moral aspirations of the age, which set great store by the ideals of brotherhood, love, fair play, trust and justice, and encouraged hard work and perseverance in the face of adversity. All these themes come to life in Singleton’s Chronicle.

The complex fusion of romance and realism embedded in this style brings about the magical realism permeating the book. The language itself reveals the authentic spiritual and magical nature of what is being observed and experienced. It is doubtful whether the use of any other literary style could adequately capture this elusive quality of human perception and cognition as effectively, or express it in prose and imagery of equal poetic and luminous beauty.

This novel, a large period piece made modern by innovative writing techniques, is presented as magical realism. It deals with the history of the earliest months of diamond digging in the interior of South Africa in 1869, expounding on unusual events and the fellowship of men from diverse backgrounds. Who they were, what they thought, and what moved them so powerfully is told in the language of universals. But the book is also the unconventional love story of the central character, Singleton.

About the Author

Henk Rall grew up in South Africa in the area described in Singleton’s Chronicle. He is a medical doctor who has worked on four continents.