Journalist Peter G.o.dwin wrote two books about growing up in Zimbabwe, and both do a remarkable job of combining the personal and the historical. Although I found Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa to be engrossing and enlightening-it"s set from 1964 to 1982 against the background of the war that gained Rhodesia independence and black rule as the country of Zimbabwe-I was totally hooked by the evocative writing of When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, which describes the long reign of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe in all its brutal details while at the same time exploring the repercussions of a long-held G.o.dwin family secret.
Here are some other books-both fiction and nonfiction-that I"ve found engrossing since I wrote the "Dreaming of Africa" section in Book l.u.s.t.
Petina Gappah"s An Elegy for Easterly: Stories Wendy Kann"s Casting with a Fragile Thread: A Story of Sisters and Africa makes a good companion read with Alexandra Fuller"s Don"t Let"s Go to the Dogs Tonight.
Doris Lessing"s Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949 and African Laughter: Four Visits to Zimbabwe Andrew Meldrum"s Where We Have Hope: A Memoir of Zimbabwe Tudor Parfitt"s Journey to the Vanished City: The Search for a Lost Tribe of Israel (absolutely fascinating for history buffs or those interested in the history of religion) Douglas Rogers"s The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe Irene Sabatini"s The Boy Next Door Lauren St. John"s Rainbow"s End: A Memoir of Childhood, War, and an African Farm Wilbur Smith"s Ballantyne series are perfect airplane reads, while at the same time offering a pretty accurate account of historical events.You"ll probably want to read them in order: A Falcon Flies, Men of Men, The Angels Weep, and The Leopard Hunts in Darkness. (Smith has written over thirty books set in Africa, so if you fall in love with reading about the continent, he"s an author you"ll want to remember.) Yvonne Vera"s painful-to-read novel The Stone Virgins describes the lives of sisters Thenjiwe and Nonceba living during the period when Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain.
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