After an idyllic childhood and magical holidays on her grandparents' chicken farm, the conundrum is why Kate, now married to Joe, a human rights' lawyer, is so cynical, closed and rigidly unforgiving.Kate's unrelenting attitude, combined with Joe's loss of faith in his ability to promote change, precipitates a bitter and painful confrontation. The necessary expiation reveals a child's loss, a child's feelings of impotence, a child's anguish at her failure to pre-empt harm.Kate's salvation is painful, evocative, beautifully drawn and utterly absorbing. Praise for The Innocence of Roast ChickenJo-Anne Richards has the writer's eye, that natural ability to sniff out the telling detail and the right word. She is a delight to savour - one of the freshest voices to emerge from South African literature in years - Peter Godwin, author of MukiwaA rapturous and tactile evocation of dust, food, noises and a childhood domain, rendered with a marked empathy for the child and the magical properties of a child's stamping ground. Elizabeth Buchan, The Times (UK)Jo-Anne Richards displays a wonderful feeling for place and period . . . her prose is sharply evocative, and she conjures up the child's powerful feelings with a vividness intensified by nostalgia. - Margaret Walters, The Sunday Times (UK)