James Kilgore: We are All Zimbabweans Now

I just got, from the author, information about this novel that is set in Zimbabwe. It's is entitled We Are All Zimbabweans Now, and from the reviews and blurbs, its premise seems interesting. The book was published by Umuzi (Cape Town), a division of Random House.

Here is some information about the novel and author:

Description

In 1981 a young American historian arrives in Zimbabwe, full of idealism and enthusiasm for the benevolent new Prime Minister Robert Mugabe and the post-colonial new beginning for that country. His historic research leads him to an apparent murder case, unresolved since the days of the bush war. As he draws – or is lead – or yet mislead – closer to an answer, he becomes involved with a local woman through whom he soon finds himself in the inner circle of the new ruling class. Once the euphoria starts dissipating he encounters increasingly menacing instances of corruption and repression, including threats to himself to abandon his investigation. With every new revelation a new layer of decay is exposed and with that, his idealism retreats. In the process, the meaning of the novel’s title, taken from Mugabe’s conciliatory rhetoric at the beginning, gradually comes to mean: we are all trapped and compromised into the moral tangle and the destruction into which all the promise has degenerated. James Kilgore’s debut is an extremely accomplished and compelling novel that deftly employs the instruments of a detective thriller.

About the author

James Kilgore first made news in South Africa when he was arrested in Cape Town in 2002. He had been living under the alias Dr John Pape and become a respected academic at the University of Cape Town. U.S. authorities extradited him to California where he served six and a half years in prison. He was released 10 May 2009. Kilgore grew up in California and lived in the volatile San Francisco Bay Area during the late 60s and early 70s. He became immersed in left-wing politics, eventually linking up with the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). His involvement with the SLA led to an indictment for possession of explosives in 1975. Kilgore then fled the law for 27 years, living in Zimbabwe, Australia and South Africa. He abandoned the politics violence, focusing on a career as an educator. He resided in Harare, the site of We are all Zimbabweans Now, from 1982–91. Here he met his wife, Terri and also wrote a doctoral dissertation on the history of domestic workers in Zimbabwe. From Harare James and Terri moved to South Africa where he worked as an educator and director for both Khanya College in Johannesburg and the International Labour Research and Information Group (ILRIG) in Cape Town. He earned a reputation as a champion of workers and the poor. He currently lives with Terri and their two sons, in Illinois, U.S.A. We are all Zimbabweans Now is his first novel and his first publication under his real name. He is currently working on manuscripts of seven other novels which he wrote during his incarceration.

I look forward to reading this new addition to the growing literature about Zimbabwe. As one of the reviewers said, I want to see a piece of myself in the novel, which covers a very important time in Zimbabwean history.