Eleni Trataris Cotton 
Bertha the Swiss Trader’s Daughter 

It is 1915 and the Great War changes everything.Born of two cultures, black and white, the Deuss sisters live lives of privilege in Nyasaland, now Malawi, a magnificent country where people walk in fear of slave traders, where big game is hunted, and affluent colonials drink cocktails at sundown.It ends suddenly when catastrophic events tear their family apart. Bertha and her sisters are left unprotected in a male dominated, racist society.Rejecting despair, they forge a new path for themselves with courage and determination. But is this enough to open society’s closed doors, to build a new life, find love and defy what society expects lone girls of mixed race to do?This is fact-fiction meticulously researched, a novel and adventure story which is based on real peoples’ lives, people who experienced the depths of tragedy, yet also the heights of joy during their lives on an unforgettably beautiful and wild continent. It is a slice of history, a window into an enthralling, exciting and doomed world that is gone forever.