Hava Fleming

Red Stone White Stone Hava Fleming

A New Zealand family live near Basel in Switzerland. The heroine, Annie Kingi, falls in love with Sean, a member of the Irish Folk Festival which plays in Basel. Her youngest child, Danny, witnesses a terrible crime in the forest by the River Rhine. This dramatic event has far-reaching consequences for a group of refugees from the Bosnian War of 1992, as well as for Annie's own family. As the author takes us through their private agonies and their social consequences, a tale is told which leads from the present to the far distant past and back again. Annie receives the red stone as a gift from Sean O'Connor. This stone is from Tara, in Ireland, and as Annie holds it so dear to her in her pocket, it causes her to dream of ancient heroes and events. She encounters a new friend, Bonia, a woman evidently from the Celtic past of the Rauraker tribe which had settled near their home in Kaiseraugst, by the mighty river. Annie is comforted by the friendship, and eventually receives the white stone from Bonia. More stories about this stone, and those which issue from it, help Annie to face the dreadful present realities. Meanwhile the young couple who had been so desperately in love and who survived the war, now live in Switzerland as part of the refugee community; a community which was to be torn apart during the court case. This court hearing draws all strands of the story together, as the young psychiatrist for Danny, his child patient, suddenly hears in vivid detail what had had a veil drawn over it for many months. The events of that frightful afternoon by the river Rhine are not based on real events, but serve to highlight the struggles of living abroad from one's homeland, the sometimes duplicitous nature of a court trial, and the power of friendship and need.