Book description
Peter Godwin, an award-winning writer, is on assignment in Zululand
when he is summoned by his mother to Zimbabwe, his birthplace. His
father is seriously ill; she fears he is dying. Godwin finds his
country, once a post-colonial success story, descending into a vortex of
violence and racial hatred. His father recovers, but over the next few
years Godwin travels regularly between his family life in Manhattan and
the increasing chaos of Zimbabwe, with its rampant inflation and land
seizures making famine a very real prospect. It is against this backdrop
that Godwin discovers a fifty-year-old family secret, one which changes
everything he thought he knew about his father, and his own place in the
world. Peter Godwin's book combines vivid reportage, moving personal
stories and revealing memoir, and traces his family's quest to belong in
hostile lands - a quest that spans three continents and half a century.
'Heartbreaking . . . Godwin plainly loves Africa, and he captures the
baffling wayward contradictions of its people, their cruelties and
unexpected kindnesses, their nobility of spirit in the face of appalling
conditions, with humour and grace' Daily Mail 'A wonderful book . . .
beautifully written, packed with insight and free of rancour' Literary
Review 'A strong, heroic book . . . too vivid to bear and too central to
our concerns to ignore' Edmund White
Peter Godwin is the author of Mukiwa, also published by Picador, an
account of his childhood and early adulthood. He writes for various
publications including the New York Times magazine, National
Geographic, Time and Newsweek. He lives in Manhattan.
