Andre Brink has had a long career as a South African novelist, one that has provided him a forum for voicing his opposition to apartheid. Imaginings of Sand depicts the country as it makes the transition to democracy, just as Kristien Muller returns from self-imposed exile to the bedside of her dying grandmother, Ouma Kristina. At age 103 matriarchal Ouma is a fountain of family history and white South African legend, and to her grandaughter she passes on tales--magically unreal at times--that link the oppression suffered by women and blacks. While immersed in these fables of memory and emotion, Kristien must also deal with the current reality: a hostile family and authorities discomfited by the impending transition of power.