Ten top books about Zimbabwe

Petina Gappah is a Zimbabwean writer with law degrees from Cambridge, Graz University and the University of Zimbabwe. Her books include the story collection An Elegy for Easterly and the novel The Book of Memory. One of her top ten books about Zimbabwe, as shared at the Guardian:

The Last Resort by Douglas Rogers (2010)

This warm and funny memoir is a love letter to a country in the grip of madness. Lyn and Ros Rogers are the owners of Drifters, a farm they bought after Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. Their son Douglas tells the story of how they and their motley staff seek to coexist with the Comrades who try to take over their farm while the economy crashes and spins out of control around them. This book gives the reader an understanding of why there will never be an Arab spring in Zimbabwe – we Zimbos are resilient to the nth degree. We don’t revolt, we “make a plan”. In my favourite passage in the book, a most unlikely character turns out to be the biggest pothead on Zimbabwean soil since Bob Marley and the Wailers played the independence concert. Magic.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 99 Test: The Last Resort.

--Marshal Zeringue