RITE OF THE DRAGON

Beneath the elegant veneer of the 1970s' South Africa was a world of witchcraft and the eternal struggle for power between two races. While most Whites lived in large homes with manicured gardens, the Black majority lived in shacks and shanties and spent their days smiling and bowing while they did the bidding of the Whites.

But the pressure for freedom was building.

It manifested in the form of Nkolosi - a Oxford-educated witch doctor, master of black magic and modern terrorism. A man determined to stop at nothing to end White oppression. A man, perhaps, bent on replacing white tyranny with his own brand of oppression. . . .

In the middle stood four lovers: Tom Sibanda, a Black writer indebted to Nkolosi; his adopted sister Riena Parker, a headstrong mulatto girl; Jacob Prescott, the American father of Riena's child; and Riena's friend Deanna Rosen, a Jewish South African.

They were all that stood between the future of South Africa and the dragon Negwenya, mother of all lightning birds.

Their destiny became the destiny of a nation - a continent, a world. The fates that ruled them rule us even now. •

Rite of the Dragon is a unique and unforgettable book that combines the sweep and passion of James Michener's The Covenant with the bone-chilling terror of Stephen King's Salem's Lot and Firestarter.

“Robust action and tension and passion amidst South African revolutionary political intrigue.” - Alex Haley, author of Roots

“A first class thriller . . . a fascinating story.” - San Francisco Chronicle

“Like Africa Herself, Janet Berliner's work is a territory of heartbreak and hope, a land which transcends its searing contradictions through the constraining power of its poetry.” - S.P. Somtow, author of Vampire Junction