The Boy Next Door
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Review
'One of the most engaging novels about inter-racial love to be published this century ... entertaining, ambitious and packed with news from elsewhere, leavened by the precious optimism of youth. Don't miss it.'
(Amanda Craig, Independent )'What a worthy winner of the 2010 Orange Award for New Writers. This is an exuberant, tender and often humorous love story...Irene Sabatini is a born writer, and she has told a completely engrossing story which combines brilliantly realised fictional characters as well as evoking the only too real sad degradation of a once-thriving country.' (Carla McKay, Daily Mail )
'A fine and accomplished first novel...full of understanding, insight and powerful beauty' (Alexander Lucie-Smith, Tablet )
'A tender, powerful debut, this story makes an indelible imprint' (Easy Living )
'Irene Sabatini's captivating first novel, THE BOY NEXT DOOR, offers readers a rare and often painfully honest glimpse into life in post-independent Zimbabwe. And yet there is much light and hope and yes, love - genuine and hard-earned - in this book as well. A true pleasure.' (Peter Orner, author of The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo )
Product Description
Winner of the 2010 Orange Award for New Writers
Two days after I turned fourteen the son of our neighbour set his stepmother alight.
Or so Lindiwe Bishop believes, though eighteen months later the charges against Ian McKenzie are dropped and he returns home, full of charm and swagger.
Intrigued, Lindiwe strikes up a covert friendship with the mysterious white boy next door. As a bond grows between them, they cannot foreseee how severely it will be tested in the years ahead - by secrets and by a world that wants nothing more than to divide them.
Vividly evoking Zimbabwe's slide from independence into chaos, THE BOY NEXT DOOR tells an engrossing tale about what it means to witness, change, love and remain whole when all around you is falling apart.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an accomplished, convincing and highly readable debut novel. In a crowded market this book stands out both for its unusual setting - Zimbabwe in the years following independence - and for its sure handling, a keenly observed story by a writer who clearly knows the world she describes and who is obviously passionate about all her characters.
Lindiwe and Ian are the protagonists, neighbouring teenagers who inhabit very different worlds, she a black Zimbabwean, he a 'Rhodie' with the attitudes of a ruling elite. A terrible event brings them to each other's attention, and through the years their relationship develops from immature curiosity to - well you'll just have to read it to find out exactly what. Suffice to say each has a profound effect on the other as their paths cross and veer apart while their country goes through increasingly troubled times.
This is described as a love story in promotion and it's certainly that. However I felt it was so much more and this description didn't do the book full justice. It's about love, yes, but love in a world undergoing wider turmoil as the Mugabe government, widely approved initially as a model of African democracy, descends into a regime of tribalism, paranoia and fear. However while the political situation touches the worlds of these characters it's not central, just as in most people's lives; this is certainly a novel about people and not politics.
It's to Sabatini's immense credit that she breathes life into all her characters, with even comparatively minor figures fully rounded and believable. Lindiwe's family are convincingly drawn, with subtlety and persuasive detail. At a distance of thousands of miles and almost three decades it seemed astonishing to me that teenage girls were pinning posters of Duran Duran on their walls in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia (its official post independence name) just as in Europe, but I'm told they were. The mix of values, of clashing cultures, the search for personal happiness in a new nation racked by corruption, racism and the 'slim disease', all these themes surround and inhabit Lindiwe's and Ian's troubled yet hopeful world and help to make 'The Boy Next Door' an essential read.
Lindiwe and Ian are the protagonists, neighbouring teenagers who inhabit very different worlds, she a black Zimbabwean, he a 'Rhodie' with the attitudes of a ruling elite. A terrible event brings them to each other's attention, and through the years their relationship develops from immature curiosity to - well you'll just have to read it to find out exactly what. Suffice to say each has a profound effect on the other as their paths cross and veer apart while their country goes through increasingly troubled times.
This is described as a love story in promotion and it's certainly that. However I felt it was so much more and this description didn't do the book full justice. It's about love, yes, but love in a world undergoing wider turmoil as the Mugabe government, widely approved initially as a model of African democracy, descends into a regime of tribalism, paranoia and fear. However while the political situation touches the worlds of these characters it's not central, just as in most people's lives; this is certainly a novel about people and not politics.
It's to Sabatini's immense credit that she breathes life into all her characters, with even comparatively minor figures fully rounded and believable. Lindiwe's family are convincingly drawn, with subtlety and persuasive detail. At a distance of thousands of miles and almost three decades it seemed astonishing to me that teenage girls were pinning posters of Duran Duran on their walls in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia (its official post independence name) just as in Europe, but I'm told they were. The mix of values, of clashing cultures, the search for personal happiness in a new nation racked by corruption, racism and the 'slim disease', all these themes surround and inhabit Lindiwe's and Ian's troubled yet hopeful world and help to make 'The Boy Next Door' an essential read.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I found this a difficult book to review. Set in the newly-formed Zimbabwe, it is essentially a love story between a 'coloured' Zimbabwe girl and a white 'Rhodie'. Bound by a tragedy in their youth, we follow their relationship in the burgeoning Zimbabwe with all its hopes, then descent into brutality, prejudice and corruption.
I found the book very hard to get into and there were times at the beginning when I really didn't think I could carry on with it. There was so much history, politics and tribal allegiances which were difficult to sort out and I found the Zimbabwean slang very difficult. A glossary would have helped. Perhaps if I had known more about the internal politics and various factions I might have found it easier.
Having said that, from page 150 I became engossed in the story and found the main characters very believable. So 3 stars for the first part, and 5 for the second, so will settle for 4!
I found the book very hard to get into and there were times at the beginning when I really didn't think I could carry on with it. There was so much history, politics and tribal allegiances which were difficult to sort out and I found the Zimbabwean slang very difficult. A glossary would have helped. Perhaps if I had known more about the internal politics and various factions I might have found it easier.
Having said that, from page 150 I became engossed in the story and found the main characters very believable. So 3 stars for the first part, and 5 for the second, so will settle for 4!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is one of those books that actually add something to your life and thinking, especially if, like me, you start reading it with nothing more than a vague idea of where Zimbabwe is. The more I read, the more I found literally absorbed in a world that, despite being so far from mine, never appeared so close. This book is been a reading and a cultural experience, who brought me through some of the most significant moments in recent Zimbabwean history with such a great poignancy it's not easy to explain. A book captivating and entertaining, but at the same time deep and meaningful, written in such a moving plain and straightforward language which can't possibly miss your soul. True, at the beginning you might find slightly confused in front of political facts you don't know anything about, but there is nothing that a quick look at wikipedia can't help sorting out. And as far as the slang words are concerned, they're fully part of the exotic spell this book will cast on you...Ian's lingo is absolutely irresistible!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A great book
The romance in this book was sweet, and I loved it for that. It pulled at me and evoked emotions within. I agree with the one reviewer that found it hard to get into the book. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Missmye
Zimbabwe can be a fearful place
Written in a very clipped style more like a diary and quite difficult to read. It would have been useful if there were explanations for some of the local words as it was difficult... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Paintedlady
sorry but it was disappointing
I was looking forward to reading this and had great expectations, it was depressing I got 25% into it (read on my Kindle) then gave up. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mr. Philip R. Gardner
Overrated
After reading all the positive reviews I had high expectations for this book. However, it just didn't deliver! Read more
Published 13 months ago by Starstruck
Not so keen - I'm sorry!
I always hate being the voice of dissent, and I do agree with previous reviewers that this is a very accomplished novel, but it just didn't engage or move me. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Novel Reader
boy next door
excellent book - mixture of political and historical fact blended into an engaging fictional story about a 'coloured' and a 'white' Rhodesian/Zimbabwean. Read more
Published 17 months ago by helen
Brilliant!
I just loved this book. I thought it was beautifully written and thoroughly enjoyable. It was great to read about a period of time that I was not overly familiar with. Buy it!!
Published 23 months ago by Lara
Wonderful writing, a pleasure to read
I throughly enjoyed this book which was immensely accomplished for a debut novel. In a way I too fell in love with the boy next door as he was so sensitively portrayed and the love... Read more
Published 23 months ago by KemKem
''Lekker!''
What I love about reading is that you can pick up a book you've never heard of, full of a place and time you know nothing about and by the end of it have a real feel for the people... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Elka
An amazing story...
The Boy Next Door is an excellent read. It tells the story of the unlikely relationship between Lindiwe and Ian, the white boy next door, set in a small town in newly independent... Read more
Published on 10 Oct 2009 by Petra
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