The Death of Rex Nhongo by C. B. George

Harare, Zimbabwe, 2011. This is a story of five marriages and one gun. A British couple wonder at the unknowable city beyond their guarded compound while they build walls between themselves. An American begins to suspect his new home is having an insidious effect on his 'African queen' and their young daughter. An enthusiastic young intellectual follows his wife and his dreams to the city and finds only disillusion. An Intelligence Officer loses a crucial piece of evidence. It will cost him his marriage and his girlfriend maybe even his life. A taxi driver and his wife, living on the knife-edge of poverty, find a gun in the cab. From this point on, all their lives are tied to the trigger. C. B. George's Zimbabwe is a personal portrait, both tender and brutal. The betrayals and conspiracies of the corrupt world are nothing compared to those of marriage in which husband and wife love and leave, fight and flee, recant and reconcile, with outcomes that are by turns shocking, heartbreaking and, ultimately, full of hope.