Out of Shadows by Jason Wallace

Out of Shadows

Jason Wallace

The consequences of a violent history play out in an exclusive boys' boarding school in 1980's Zimbabwe. Outsider Robert Jacklin is forced to make uncomfortable decisions while white Afrikaner, Ivan, is consumed with prejudice. The reader has hindsight the characters do not possess and is faced with moral choices as they experience a whirlwind of racial intolerance, loneliness, fear, confusion and pain.

Extract
Tell me, he said, If I stood you in front of a man, pressed the cold metal of a gun into your palm and told you to squeeze the trigger, would you do it?
He seemed to be looking at me as he said it. Only me. I felt my ears start to go pink.
No, sir.
Are you sure?
Of course, sir. No ways!
Slowly, he sat. His eyes continued to smoulder.
What if I then told you we'd gone back in time and his name was Adolf Hitler? Would you do it then? Would you? Would you?
Parallels
  • Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa by Peter Godwin
  • My Traitor's Heart by Rian Malan
  • Lord of the Flies by William Golding