Set in a mythic, pre-historical southern Africa, Mella and the N’anga, a novel by Trinidad-born, Ontario-based writer Gail Nyoka, is a tour de force of storytelling, at once fantastic but emotionally true and rich.

In the walled city of Mopopoto, the King lies dying. As his health declines, so too does the health of the Land of the People (present-day Zimbabwe): drought sets in, and a strong warrior tribe threatens the kingdom.

The king’s daughter Mella, guided by the wise Rangarirai, a “Senior Sister” or elder of the kingdom, summons the Great N’anga, a mythic figure who comes to the city and reveals that only the Python Healer can help the king. While Mella’s brother, the warrior Dikita, undertakes a perilous journey to find the Python Healer, the N’anga begins teaching Mella and two other girls the ways of the forest, training them to become Daughters of the Hunt, an ancient order of female sages that has fallen from favour. When Dikita returns to the kingdom, falsely claiming to have been granted the kingship by the Python Healer, it is up to Mella to confront the Python Healer herself, with the future of the kingdom in the balance.

Mella and the N’anga conforms to many of the conventions of a mythic story, unfolding with a comforting familiarity that is nonetheless surprising and emotionally affecting. While the story focuses on empowerment and explores the conflict between patriarchy and matriarchy, Nyoka never belabours these points. She instead allows the narrative, and the strongly developed characters, to reconcile and illuminate these issues, while at the same time providing a unique vision of a skillfully evoked world distant from our own. The world of Mella and the N’anga is a place where gods walk the earth, where magic can heal, and where the gifts of the land come about through wisdom and not brute force. It’s a wonderful book, appropriate for readers 10 and older, and a tale that adult readers will also enjoy.