The year the gypsies came is the beautifully written andgloomy debut novel of South African writer Linzi Glass. The protagonist, EmilyIris is a 12-year-old girl in 1960s apartheid South Africa, from a very unhappyhome. Her father is cold and distant, whilst her mother is inattentive andadulterous. Emily’s narrative voice really allows the reader into her world,letting them feel, anger guilt and resentment, just as she does, whilst beingeducated by the African folklore as told by the elderly Zulu night watchmanBuza. Her parents constant arguing is too much to take, until the gypsies cometo stay. Not the archetypal gypsies that one would imagine though, in fact theyare a wandering family from Australia. Father Jock, the wildlife photographerwho makes money selling his pictures of African game; Mother Peg with herever-present snake Opalina and sons Otis, who has a clear mental disorder; andStreak the younger and more uncouth of the two. A chilling yet thoroughly enjoyableread.