Published 26th March 2026 by Holland House.
From the cover of the book:
On the 1st December 1838, all slaves were finally freed in South Africa, four years after slavery had officially been abolished.
First of December follows three people during the week of November 1838: James and Caroline Kendrick, and an unnamed runaway slave making her way to Cape Town along the coast, desperate to reach it by midnight on the 31st November.
Caroline is trapped in an unhappy marriage, in a place she hates, always longing to go home; bored, lonely, without purpose or any sense of belonging. James is forever on the move, desperate for success after a lifetime of failure and humiliation, seeing South Africa as his last great hope, preparing for the climax of his work, a bank to serve the city. Each resents the other, feeling trapped and unloved, yet with a wish for it all to change. Meanwhile the slave-apprentice, fearful of being caught before the deadline, meets others living on the coast, at the edge of society, yet always remaining alone, without any clear idea of what to expect in Cape Town.
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Cape Town, 1938. Four years ago slavery was abolished, but for the slaves in South Africa this did not mean freedom. Instead, they were bound for four more years of unpaid service as slave-apprentices, under the guise of 'training' them to become useful members of colonial society. From midnight on the 31st November they will finally be free to pursue their own lives.
Over the course of the week running up to 1st December, this poignant historical fiction novel follows the lives of three people - married couple James and Caroline Kendrick in Cape Town; and an unnamed female runaway slave-apprentice who is making her way towards the capital, where she hopes to celebrate the moment of freedom.
The story flows seamlessly (and sometimes confusingly) between the narratives of the three individuals during this tense and fearful time, as they look back on the past, and consider what the future might hold. For James and Caroline this largely involves painful reflections on a disappointed marriage filled with recriminations - while James desperately chases grand dreams of fortune to make up for his daddy issues; and Caroline is trapped in an endless fever dream-like inertia, in a role she despises and a country she wishes she could leave. Meanwhile, the unnamed slave girl makes her journey on a knife-edge, haunted by memories of loss and heart-rending trauma.
This is a novel steeped in visceral emotions, in a complex setting filled with contradictions. Jennings does not shy away from examining many aspects of poverty, injustice, hypocrisy, and the impact of colonialism through her characters, which makes for uncomfortable reading. There is little by way of joy, but there is hope for the slave-apprentices looking forward to change on the strike of midnight on 31st November.
This was a subject I knew nothing about, and it inevitably sent me down eye-opening rabbit holes about nineteenth century Cape Town and slavery in South Africa. Even so, there is a lot of missing context in Jennings' raw prose that wider reading does not compensate for. She touches on so much I felt some of the shades of meaning she intended to convey were lost on me. Is Caroline's malaise due to physical illness or depression? Was there more to the gulf between Caroling and James than disappointed hopes? What is the significance of being in Cape Town as the four year period expires? I was never quite sure.
However, she brings time and place vividly alive, and I was fascinated by the unexpected way she weaves an exploration of how the flush of first love can wither through the story, especially when it comes to the wildly differing expectations of men and women.
Plenty of grit gives depth and power to this literary novel, and the 'snapshot of history' premise is intriguing. It has left me with a lot of lingering thoughts about the characters and their predicaments, and Jennings' writing is starkly beautiful.
First of December is available to buy now in paperback and ebook formats.
Thank you to Holland House for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Folk PR for inviting me to join this blog tour.
About the author:
Karen Jennings is a South African writer whose novel An Island was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2021, with the follow-up longlisted for The Women's Prize in 2025. She was writer-in-residence as a post-doctoral fellow at the Laboratory for the Economics of Africa's Past, Stellenbosch University. Karen currently lectures at North-West University. She received the K. Sello Duiker Memorial Award in 2021, and has won the Africa Region Prize of the Commonwealth Short Story Competition. Her first novel, Finding Soutbek, was shortlisted for the Etisalat Prize. Travels with my Father, a memoir, has been a set university text in South Africa.
Karen founded The Island Prize for unpublished African authors to help them get published globally. Now in its fifth year the prize has helped authors from all over the continent.
