‘This wickedly satirical novel is also a serious critique of Africa’s troubled state.’ Guardian
‘Jolly good fun.’ Daily Mail
'An engaging mix of sharp satire, gentle humour, rich characterisation and political content.' - Melbourne Age
‘A Dickensian cast of characters, a plot worthy of Waugh, this is a cracking fictional debut . . . full of humour, home truths – and anger simmering beneath it all.’ Aidan Hartley (author of Zanzibar Chest)
Mildred Kigali is quite certain. And Charity Mupanga, widowed proprietor of Harrods International Bar (and Nightspot), believes her old friend. Mildred insists that after leading the impromptu conga, knitting needles in her hands, at the end of the Kireba Sewing Circles monthly knees-up at Harrods, she had returned the needles to their usual place. And while she had to admit that the memory of someone born during East Africa’s Great Flood of 1932 was not entirely reliable, she has no doubt that the two paw paws have also gone missing. Suspicion first falls on Titus Ntoto, 15 year old leader of the Mboya Boys, Kireba’s toughest gang, and then on Ferdinand Mlambo, kitchen toto turned police informer, universally reviled as Fatboy.
The explanation of this bizarre theft (and how Fatboy wins back his name) is revealed when Jasper Japer, visiting UK television satirist, is caught up in a clash between a gang of feral street children and a group of Japanese tourists. It is an encounter with devastating consequences...
Michael Holman was brought up in Zimbabwe. He was Africa editor of the London Financial Times from 1984 until 2002; between 1977 and 1984 he was the Financial Times’ Africa correspondent, based in Lusaka, Zambia. He is also the author of Last Orders at Harrods.
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