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Doris Lessing
The Grass is Singing
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Fourth Estate
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
Previously published in paperback by Grafton 1980, Paladin 1989, as a Flamingo Modern Classic 1994 (reprinted 9 times), and as a Harper Perennial Modern Classic 2007 (reprinted 9 times)
First published in Great Britain by Michael Joseph Ltd in 1950
Copyright © Doris Lessing 1950
Doris Lessing asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780586089248
Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2012 ISBN: 9780007386307 Version: 2016-10-21
To Mrs GLADYS MAASDORP of Southern Rhodesia for whom I feel the greatest affection and admiration
In this decayed hole among the mountains
In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel
There is the empty chapel, only the wind’s home.
It has no windows, and the door swings,
Dry bones can harm no one.
Only a cock stood on the rooftree
Co co rico, co co rico
In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust
Bringing rain
Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves
Waited for rain, while the black clouds
Gathered far distant, over Himavant.
The jungle crouched, humped in silence.
Then spoke the thunder
From The Waste Land by T. S. ELIOT with grateful acknowledgements to the author and to Messrs Faber & Faber
‘It is by the failures and misfits of a civilization that one can best judge its weaknesses.’
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Table of Contents
MURDER MYSTERY
By Special Correspondent
Mary Turner, wife of Richard Turner, a farmer at Ngesi, was found murdered on the front verandah of their homestead yesterday morning. The houseboy, who has been arrested, has confessed to the crime. No motive has been discovered.
It