Kites of Good Fortune

This is a beautifully written novel based on the lives of Anna de Koning and her mother, Angela of Bengal, a slave in the household of Jan van Riebeeck who gains her freedom through a romantic and fortuitous set of circumstances. The story is told through the eyes of her daughter, Annie, who achieves material as well as social success and encounters many of the persons prominent in the history of the Cape from the middle of the seventeenth century until her death in 1734. Rich in anecdote and reference, Kites of Good Fortune takes the reader into the heart and mind of Annie de Koning. It describes her conflicting sense of belonging both to Africa and the world of her imagination, which is centered in the music and literature and fashions of Europe. The author, Therese Benadé, has done extensive research in archives and museums and creates a vivid picture of life at the Cape with its manifold opportunities as well as tensions and hardships. Historical in reference, Kites of Good Fortune is at the same time a modern tale of the ambitions and quest for fulfillment of a woman in early Cape society.