Hortensia James and Marion Agostino are next-door neighbours in a charming, bougainvillea-laden Cape Town suburb. One is black, one white. Both are successful women with impressive careers behind them. Both have recently been widowed. Both are in their eighties. And both are sworn enemies, sharing hedge and hostility which they prune with a zeal.

But one day an unforeseen event forces the women together. Could long-held mutual loathing ever transform into friendship? Or is it too late to expect these two to change?

‘Charged with beauty, precision, nuance, and hope. Yewande Omotoso is a stunning, essential voice’ NoViolet Bulawayo