Anne Burke 
Under the Bent Tree [EPUB ebook] 

Chiara is an eighteen-year-old Italian woman who moves alone to South Africa in 1970, catapulted by love and circumstances into a foreign land five thousand miles away from home. In her brief initial stay in South Africa, she experiences a turmoil of emotional events, the inebriating happiness for having rejoined her boyfriend, now husband, the elation of true friendship, but also homesickness, hate, abuse, and finally mourning. All embedded in her own unforeseen yet hastened call for growth and maturity.