Tea on the Blue Sofa

A passionate, bittersweet memoir of a love cruelly cut short, set in the splendour of East Africa. Natasha Illum Berg is secretly in love. As she waits for her married lover in her beautiful house in the African countryside, she reflects on her Danish childhood, her African present, the tides of her life. She has been changed forever by meeting her lover – her previous existence, her family, her journey to Africa and her other lovers seem to belong to a different person. But one evening, on his way to visit her, her lover is shot, murdered, outside her gates. As their love was clandestine, so her mourning for him must be private too. How can she come to terms with a sadness that cannot be expressed? To whom will she turn when she must never reveal the truth of her mourning? Tea on a Blue Sofa introduces an extraordinary and distinctive new voice. The book is full of wonderful images and scenes, peopled by vivid characters. But, above all, this love letter gives off a searing, intense emotion that leaps off the page, a sadness that is as deep and profound as literature can provide.

A passionate, bittersweet memoir of a love cruelly cut short, set in the splendour of East Africa. Natasha Illum Berg is secretly in love. As she waits for her married lover in her beautiful house in the African countryside, she reflects on her Danish childhood, her African present, the tides of her life. She has been changed forever by meeting her lover – her previous existence, her family, her journey to Africa and her other lovers seem to belong to a different person. But one evening, on his way to visit her, her lover is shot, murdered, outside her gates. As their love was clandestine, so her mourning for him must be private too. How can she come to terms with a sadness that cannot be expressed? To whom will she turn when she must never reveal the truth of her mourning? Tea on a Blue Sofa introduces an extraordinary and distinctive new voice. The book is full of wonderful images and scenes, peopled by vivid characters. But, above all, this love letter gives off a searing, intense emotion that leaps off the page, a sadness that is as deep and profound as literature can provide.