An Instant in the Wind
André Brink
1976
The story...
In early 1749 the Erik Larsson expedition into the South African interior came to its final halt somewhere along the Great Fish River. The guide had committed suicide, the Hottentot bearers had all deserted, and all but two of the oxen had been stolen by raiding bushmen. Elizabeth Larsson did not yet know it, but her husband lay dead in a thicket some miles away, beneath a blanket of branches. Elizabeth’s fate was decided by the arrival of Adam Mantoor, an ex-carpenter and runaway slave from the Cape, who for some weeks had been secretly and compulsively tracking the wagons. At first their relationship was guarded, poisoned by the black and the white in them both. But, slowly a fellowship emerges.
Author
Andre Brink was born in May 1935 in Vrede, South Africa. He has been made a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters and awarded the Legion of Honour by the French government. In 1992 he was awarded the Monismanien Human Rights Award from the University of Uppsala, for making known the injustice of apartheid to the wider world. His novels include An Instant in the Wind and Rumours of Rain, both of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His latest books are Before I Forget and Praying Mantis.

I haven't read the book, its from Boris's list.