Book excerpt: The brothers of Blood Knot-- one dark-skinned, one light-- betray their dreams of a better future with the impossible wish of passing for white. In Hello and Goodbye, a poor white brother and sister churn their once-promising past to comprehend their bleak present. Boesman and Lena, a black husband and wife, tramp homelessly through a severe and unforgiving landscape, discovering strength and recovering devotion through an encounter with a mysterious old African.