Yoranivyoto

Book excerpt: What keeps and attractive academic tied to the memory of a man she marries when he is about to die? What do people who have been jailed without trial have to say to one another and to posterity? What do they really long for as they languish in detention? What is love? How does it survive persecution? Has the last word been written about Dr Banda? What really brought him to power and how did he manage to wield it for so long? In this, his first novel, the poet Felix Mnthali tries to answer some of these questions asked here. He also gives us brief vignettes of his own life as well as sketches of the history of his beloved country of Malawi. ...constructed in a fascinating way, like a musical symphony, one tune leading into another, merging and accumulating a harmony or discord to form a satisfying whole, it certainly stands the 'test' of a literary work. Literature succeeds better than history in bringing to life the reality of that history. [Pat Bryden]