1994 symbolized the triumphal defeat of almost three and a half centuries of racial separation since the Dutch East India Company planted a bitter almond hedge to keep indigenous people out of their Cape outpost in 1659. But for the majority of people in the world s most unequal society, the taste of bitter almonds linger as their exclusion from a dignified life remain the rule. In the year of South Africa s troubled coming-of-age, veteran investigative journalist Michael Schmidt brings to bear 21 years of his scribbled field notes to weave a tapestry of the view from below."