The 'Children of Violence' series, a quintet of novels tracing the life of Martha Quest from her childhood in Africa to a post-nuclear Britain of AD 2000, first established Doris Lessing as a great radical writer. In this first volume, Martha, the young rebellious daughter of a white family, finds her coming of age to be a great struggle for freedom and recognition. Intelligent and deeply compassionate, she sees the unpalatable political and social realities of her world with an extraordinary clarity. Martha's vision of a just society takes her beyond the impoverished and rigid farming community to the city an ill-matched marriage her means of escape