{"product_id":"2940153879796","title":"Book 31: Streets Paved with Gold","description":"\u003cp\u003eA young lawyer, Aletta de Beer, is assigned to defend a peasant woman from the countryside accused of murdering her baby. The accused’s name is Mpho (pronounced uM-Poe). This is a pro bono case as the accused is poor. The partners in Aletta’s legal firm have instructed her to wrap up the case as quickly as possible. Pro bono work brings in little revenue to the firm and uses up valuable time. However, wrapping up the case quickly proves to be a vain hope. The initial discussion between lawyer and client is frustrated by the accused’s lack of co-operation. Aletta is unsure whether the problem is due to Mpho’s poor language skills, or whether she is hiding material facts of the case. Aletta decides to visit her client’s village to verify the information in the accused’s file. However, each person she interviews has a different version of the truth. Aletta becomes convinced that the accused is a victim of cultural practices. She undergoes a change of heart and tells the partners in her law firm that she needs to spend more time on the case to prevent a miscarriage of justice. Eventually, Aletta finds a most unlikely witness to the crime. The person has been side-lined and silenced. However, to get the witness to talk, might place her in danger.\u003cbr\u003eIn the second story, parallels between the frontier wars of the 1850-1870s and modern industrial strikes are highlighted. In the frontier wars, witch doctors traditionally prepared Xhosa warriors for battle with rituals and medicine to make them invulnerable to bullets. In modern times, the same cultural practices have been followed by striking miners.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Clive Cooke","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47103461851376,"sku":"2940153879796","price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940153879796_p0.jpg?v=1764059100","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940153879796","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}