An Emblematic 20th-Century Tale

Recounted by three generations of women, Rasharasha is one family’s extraordinary 20th-century story spanning five continents, the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, the Battle of Gallipoli, and the rugged hardscrabble pioneering of a mixed farm in the wilderness of East Africa. The tale is one in which the family’s love, grit and heroism are set in stark counterpoint to a larger global context in which war, colonialism and then decolonisation result in cataclysmic loss, violent betrayal, and the dawning revelation that tumultuous unseen political forces have determined the course of their existence. The emblematic family story told here sheds a fascinating and often challenging light on salient contemporary issues which with we are currently grappling.