Sabatini debuts with a love story set against the backdrop of Mugabe's Zimbabwe, from its independence in the 1980s to the decline of democracy in the 1990s. Lindiwe Bishop is 14 when her neighbor, 17-year-old Ian McKenzie, is charged with killing his mother. Lindiwe's shy, at the top of her class and from the first black family that settled in Bulawayo after integration. Ian is boisterous, a dropout and from the last white family remaining in the neighborhood. They only meet briefly before he is jailed, and when he's released a year and a half later they strike up a secret friendship that largely consists of Lindiwe listening to Ian talk. Their friendship endures another hiatus—this one for 10 years—when Ian goes to South Africa, and when the two reconnect, Lindiwe is a spitfire. Subplots of varying interest—the question of Ian's fidelity, whether one of Lindiwe's friends is shacking up with corrupt officials—crop up, but most lack resolution or are abandoned soon after they're raised. Sabatini's writing is fine and shows the potential in this developing talent. (Sept.)
An interracial relationship plays out against Zimbabwe's slow disintegration in this elliptical first novel. Lindiwe Bishop is a colored (mixed race) girl in a country where race and tribe matter enormously. It's 1982, two years since blacks achieved majority rule after a brutal war, but suspicions and resentments simmer. Fourteen-year-old Lindiwe has three stories to tell: her own, her neighbor's and her country's. The McKenzies next door are the last whites in a previously all-white suburb of Bulawayo. Ian, 17, has just been accused of killing his stepmother by setting her on fire. After he's released on appeal (his confession was coerced), he and Lindiwe become friends. Quiet, bookish Lindiwe has complete faith in Ian's innocence. He may talk like a Rhodie (redneck), but she senses his underlying gentleness and is grateful for his attention, something her withdrawn parents don't provide. Lindiwe describes her feelings with such restraint that though she and Ian have a night of love before he leaves for South Africa, we don't know this at the time, nor that it will produce a baby. There are other disconcerting lacunae. Ian's mentally ill mother hovers on the margins, and we don't learn the truth about his stepmother's fiery death; Ian's different versions are not definitive. After a seven-year hiatus, Ian returns. He's a photojournalist; Lindiwe is a university student. She dumps the middle-aged French doctor she's been seeing (another gap), then, on Ian's insistence, pries their son David away from her mother so they can raise him together. Sabatini crams the story with incidents and paints a grim picture of the Mugabe regime, but she never manages to convince us of the durability ofthe lovers' relationship, which is key. Ian never quite gets the race thing-he's astonished when David is the target of schoolyard taunts-but Lindiwe accepts his obtuseness because, well, he's her man. Sabatini is an effective miniaturist but fumbles the big picture.
PRAISE FOR THE BOY NEXT DOOR :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 Debra Ginsberg , Shelf Awareness Booklist
"Sabatini, who grew up in Harare and Bulawayo, offers a beautifully written first novel that explores the complexities of post-independent Zimbabwe--ever-shifting affinities of race, family, and other affiliations--through the love story of a mixed-race couple."
"Irene Sabatini's remarkable debut novel about Zimbabwe is a kaleidoscopic blend of elements encompassing everything from coming of age and first love to race, nationalism and the rapid degradation of a once-thriving country. The story is at once sprawling and intimate, political and personal.... [Sabatini] is able to convey the evolution of Lindiwe and Ian's complex relationship with brilliant nuance and depth. Her portrayal of their different but ultimately connected views on race, family and country is masterful. Like Lindiwe, Sabatini grew up in Bulawayo and was educated in Harare. Like many first novels, this story has an autobiographical feel, but one that adds authenticity and immediacy to the narrative. Sabatini's descriptions of Zimbabwe--its people, its languages, its politics, its beauty and its despair--are absolutely stunning and not to be missed."
Debra Ginsberg - Shelf Awareness
THE BOY NEXT DOOR :
"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."
author of The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo Peter Orner
Irene Sabatini's remarkable debut novel about Zimbabwe is a kaleidoscopic blend of elements encompassing everything from coming of age and first love to race, nationalism and the rapid degradation of a once-thriving country. The story is at once sprawling and intimate, political and personal.... [Sabatini] is able to convey the evolution of Lindiwe and Ian's complex relationship with brilliant nuance and depth. Her portrayal of their different but ultimately connected views on race, family and country is masterful. Like Lindiwe, Sabatini grew up in Bulawayo and was educated in Harare. Like many first novels, this story has an autobiographical feel, but one that adds authenticity and immediacy to the narrative. Sabatini's descriptions of Zimbabwe—its people, its languages, its politics, its beauty and its despair—are absolutely stunning and not to be missed.Shelf Awareness
