After a slow start where I almost put it down, this soap-opera-y story turned out to be a bit of a page-turner. The protagonists of this story are awful people, manipulative and amoral (but they don’t seem to realize it). The story—-often predictable—-starts in South Africa when a man decides to try his luck in the diamond rush, then follows his daughter, Kate, as she builds and fights for her thriving company, taking us through her life (children & grandchildren), ending where the prologue began — at Kate’s 90th birthday party. I liked the character of Banda, who helped Kate’s father and spent most of his life struggling for freedom of the South African natives. I could have read an entire book just about him, but instead we followed the train-wreck (horrifying, but you can’t look away) of Kate’s family.