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'My guide was trying to persuade me to buy his cousin's leather goods but across the square I could see a crowd of people gathered round a kind of stage. As I approached I saw four policemen on the stage and one man with his hands behind his back. As soon as I saw the rope around his neck I started to walk away. I imagined I'd be able to hear the snap of his spine but all I heard was the crowd roar.' The son and daughter of a diplomat walk across the courtyard of their new house to meet their new stepmother. The children are divided in their experience of the foreign culture: one is repulsed, the other seduced. Soon an illicit love affair, imminent war, and the destruction of a sacred tree threaten the fragile tranquillity of the courtyard.

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Author: Orlando Reade