The Death of Rex Nhongo

C B George

A very complicated plotted and unsettling novel set in Harare with an ambiguous title. A gun is left in a taxi. What the taxi driver does with it has ramifications including adultery, assault, attempted suicide and accidental death for five loosely connected families. Good descriptions of the intrigue and corruption of the political system and of its impact on the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans.

Extract

Then his fears came tumbling out of him, one after the next. Harare was a small town, he said. The CIO was drunk and might not remember him, but what if he recognised the car? The soldiers were unlikely to report the shooting incident, but could he be sure?... It was a gun. It was a gun and surely Mandiiveyi, the CIO was going to have to account for it. He was going to come looking. He was going to come looking and if he found him ....well what then.
'What will he do to me?' Patson said. 'To you? Our children?'

Parallels