The Quality of Mercy
Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu
(Author)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
Winner, Outstanding Fiction Book Prize, Zimbabwe National Arts Merit Awards Shortlist, 2023 Sunday Times Literary Awards
Best African Books of 2023, African ArgumentsFrom 2022 Windham Campbell Prize winner Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, the breathtaking conclusion to her multiple award-winning City of Kings trilogy, including The Theory of Flight and The History of Man, "Perhaps the most monumental trilogy to come out of Southern Africa."-AfrocritikEveryone saw Emil Coetzee drive into the bush the day the ceasefire was announced. Beatrice, busy consoling her friend Kuki over the loss of her son and marriage. Dikeledi, the postwoman who refuses to lean. Tom, the drunk who makes his living impersonating Emil in backroads bars. Vida de Villiers, stuck in a coin-toss choice. Saskia, the feisty reporter determined to ruin Emil's name. Marion, the enigmatic lover he left behind. Mrs. Louisa Alcott, the lonely farm wife reading Mills & Boon romances in her best dress, waiting for her life to begin. But nobody saw him drive out of it. So begins the investigation of Spokes Moloi, the first black chief inspector in the City of Kings, who on the eve of his retirement is handed one final crime: the possible murder of Mr. Coetzee, the notorious head of the Organization of Domestic Affairs, who disappeared on the same day the country's independence beckoned. In investigating Emil's disappearance, Spokes' path collides with an assortment of witnesses with the best and worst of intentions--including a pair of corrupt investigators with an eye towards framing the guerrilla icon Golide Gumede for Emil's murder, and the insatiable public, infatuated with Emil and unable to come to terms with the fact that the future they had so long anticipated had, at last, arrived.With a nation in flux and his beloved wife Loveness forever present in his mind, Spokes' investigation leads him back to the very beginning-- and gives him one last chance to solve the twenty-year-old murder case that determined both the path of his life and destiny of his country.
Best African Books of 2023, African ArgumentsFrom 2022 Windham Campbell Prize winner Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, the breathtaking conclusion to her multiple award-winning City of Kings trilogy, including The Theory of Flight and The History of Man, "Perhaps the most monumental trilogy to come out of Southern Africa."-AfrocritikEveryone saw Emil Coetzee drive into the bush the day the ceasefire was announced. Beatrice, busy consoling her friend Kuki over the loss of her son and marriage. Dikeledi, the postwoman who refuses to lean. Tom, the drunk who makes his living impersonating Emil in backroads bars. Vida de Villiers, stuck in a coin-toss choice. Saskia, the feisty reporter determined to ruin Emil's name. Marion, the enigmatic lover he left behind. Mrs. Louisa Alcott, the lonely farm wife reading Mills & Boon romances in her best dress, waiting for her life to begin. But nobody saw him drive out of it. So begins the investigation of Spokes Moloi, the first black chief inspector in the City of Kings, who on the eve of his retirement is handed one final crime: the possible murder of Mr. Coetzee, the notorious head of the Organization of Domestic Affairs, who disappeared on the same day the country's independence beckoned. In investigating Emil's disappearance, Spokes' path collides with an assortment of witnesses with the best and worst of intentions--including a pair of corrupt investigators with an eye towards framing the guerrilla icon Golide Gumede for Emil's murder, and the insatiable public, infatuated with Emil and unable to come to terms with the fact that the future they had so long anticipated had, at last, arrived.With a nation in flux and his beloved wife Loveness forever present in his mind, Spokes' investigation leads him back to the very beginning-- and gives him one last chance to solve the twenty-year-old murder case that determined both the path of his life and destiny of his country.
Product Details
| Publisher | Catalyst Press |
| Publish Date | September 26, 2023 |
| Pages | 448 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Paperback / softback |
| EAN/UPC | 9781946395863 |
| Dimensions | 7.9 X 5.1 X 1.1 inches | 1.1 pounds |
About the Author
Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu is a writer, filmmaker and academic who holds a PhD in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University, as well as master's degrees in African Studies and Film from Ohio University. She has published research on Saartjie Baartman and she wrote, directed and edited the award-winning short film Graffiti. Her first novel, The Theory of Flight won the Barry Ronge Fiction Prize in South Africa. Her second and third novels, The History of Man and The Quality of Mercy, respectively, have been shortlisted for the Sunday Times Literary Awards. In 2022, Ndlovu was awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction. In 2023, her story "The Postman" in the Yale Review, based on a character in The Quality of Mercy, was a finalist for the American Society of Magazine Editors Award. Born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Ndlovu has returned to her beloved city after many years of living abroad.
Reviews
Praise for Book 1, The Theory of Flight"Ndlovu's deeply moving and complex novel is astonishing for the amount of hope it evokes despite the darkness that's so pervasive in Genie's world, where she creates her own reality in order to survive. This transcendent and powerful testament to the indomitable human spirit is not to be missed." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)"The Theory of Flight is a prodigious, time-stopping concerto that decisively places Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu on the global stage. A writer to watch." --NoViolet Bulawayo, author of We Need New Names"A dazzling novel of delicate and astonishing magic. The Theory of Flight is a joyful tapestry of characters shaped but never deformed by the tensions of the times they traverse, narrated in prose of devastatingly beautiful simplicity." Tsitsi Dangarembga, Booker Prize shortlisted author of Nervous Conditions and This Mournable Body"An unnamed country in the southern part of Africa springs to life in this delicate work of magical realism. [...] The Theory of Flight is unlike anything you've read before." -- Bustle"When we want to base our shared reality with each other on facts, we also must allow, acknowledge, and cherish the existence of magic. The Theory of Flight is full of magic, a magic willing to be observed by eyes that can see the beauty in knowledge, facts and far beyond." -- Full Stop Magazine"[The Theory of Flight] strikes what feels like an impossible balance--splitting its attention between how history defines lives and how lives, nonetheless, exceed such historical definition ... it exemplifies the most textured work emerging from the region." -- Jeanne-Marie Jackson, Public Books"When I reached the final pages of Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu's The Theory of Flight, I recognized that I had read something truly rare: an intelligent novel with a big heart." --The Rupture"This epic novel weaves magical realism and myth in the life story of Imogen "Genie" Zula Nyoni (who is HIV positive) and her South African family history, including wars, poverty, colonization, love and race." --POZ Magazine"Incandescent and wryly largehearted, The Theory of Flight is a tale of epic scope. Ndlovu's unique and beautifully composed debut confirms her right away as that rare phenomenon: a born storyteller with a poet's ear. Beguiling, brilliant and brave." --Masande Ntshanga, author of Triangulum"An epic novel written with such wit and ingenuity. I was unable to put this book down, in awe of Ndlovu and her stunning virtuoso, the ways she brings these unforgettable characters into a magical world with such delightful of prose. Beautiful and utterly sublime. My novel of the year." -- Novuyo Tshuma, author of House of Stone"Here is a story of the most beautiful liberation struggle, a quest to inhabit the wilds of the imagination.
Praise for Book 2, The History of Man"60 Notable Books of 2022" -Open Country Magazine"The Best Books to Read in January" --BuzzFeed"63 Anticipated African Books of 2022" --Brittle Paper
"From the author of The Theory of Flight, this book is a remarkably insightful and sensitive 'excursion into the interiority of the coloniser' - at once a psychological exploration and a searing political examination, but at its core intensely human and filled with empathy and pathos." -- Jet Club (South Africa)
"[A] superb piece of writing, and a troubling and thought-provoking book." -- The Witness (South Africa)"Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu's The History of Man allows the reader to feel and sympathize with an unlikeable protagonist, which, in itself, is a feat in storytelling. The History of Man is not just a history of man but a history of a country and colonialism as told by an unapologetic and sensitive writer who loves the place they write about." --Zukiswa Wanner, author of
"In its epic and yet intimate portrait of Zimbabwe's colonial past, The Quality of Mercy finds tenderness where few writers dare to look. Ndlovu meets the gaze of white supremacy's henchmen full on, while embracing the complex pleasures of peering beyond social shorthand. Her loving account of Bulawayo and its surrounds across the twentieth century does something rare and breathtakingly hard: it enchants even as it unveils." - Jeanne-Marie Jackson, Associate Professor of English Literature at Johns Hopkins University, author of The African Novel of Ideas: Philosophy and Individualism in the Age of Global Writing"Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu's trilogy of novels reimagine the history of a country much like modern Zimbabwe. Through her multiracial cast ofcharacters (with weighty inheritances) and their fantastical comings and goings, she realizes unpromised futures. The Quality of Mercy, set on the eve of that unnamed country's independence, and organized around a murder mystery, continues that quest." -Sean Jacobs, faculty at The New School and Founder-Editor of Africa Is a Country"Read The Quality of Mercy [and] savour the extraordinary literary gifts of Ndlovu, her matchless cool and humour as she channels Zora Neale Hurston; revel in her dizzying, insistent eloquence as she lays bare the bloodcurdling crimes... Come face to face with the suffering and bravery of the displaced rural folk... Learn the meaning of survival, of the various types of love and the mercy which is their yield." - Barbara Masekela, poet and former Ambassador to France, UNESCO, and the United States&#
Praise for Book 2, The History of Man"60 Notable Books of 2022" -Open Country Magazine"The Best Books to Read in January" --BuzzFeed"63 Anticipated African Books of 2022" --Brittle Paper
"A truly stunning novel." -- BookRiot
"[The History of Man] braids the social and the personal. Her style is deceptively simple as she describes the great mysteries of how we come to be who we are. Through the figure of Emil, a white man on the wrong side of Zimbabwean liberation history, she paints a fine-grained portrait of lost forms of Rhodesian city life." --Jeanne-Marie Jackson, The New York Times"With rhythmic prose and sly humor, The History of Man tells the story of one man's inevitable failure to live up to his potential." --Foreword Review"The History of Man extracts the history and beating heart of an unnamed African country, seen through the eyes of one man, Emil Coetzee, a white male in his fifties, on the eve of his country's ceasefire. Emil reflects on his life, from boyhood to adulthood, and Ndlovu reveals it with empathy, generosity, and unflinching truth." --The Rumpus"Ndlovu impresses with a fresh and astute perspective on colonialism, race, and family that focuses on white South African-born civil servant Emil Coetzee, who appeared in the author's debut, The Theory of Flight. [...] Ndlovu deserves credit for her brilliant and meticulous characterization. This leaves readers with much to think about." -- Publishers Weekly "Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu is both a chronicler and a conjurer whose soaring imagination creates a Zimbabwean past made of anguish and hope, of glory and despair: the story of the generations born at the crossroads of a country's history." -- 2022 Windham Campbell Prize committee"In her prize-winning debut novel The Theory of Flight, Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu surprised and delighted readers and critics with her ingenious excavation of the post-colonial moment in an unnamed Zimbabwe-esque Southern African country. In The History of Man, her second novel, she turns her attention back in time to the colonial era, in the same country. While quite different in tone, more linear and less obviously touched by folklore and magic, it shares its predecessor's intriguingly slippery relationship with history, and its author's skilful execution." -- Sunday Times (South Africa)"From the author of The Theory of Flight, this book is a remarkably insightful and sensitive 'excursion into the interiority of the coloniser' - at once a psychological exploration and a searing political examination, but at its core intensely human and filled with empathy and pathos." -- Jet Club (South Africa)
"[A] superb piece of writing, and a troubling and thought-provoking book." -- The Witness (South Africa)"Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu's The History of Man allows the reader to feel and sympathize with an unlikeable protagonist, which, in itself, is a feat in storytelling. The History of Man is not just a history of man but a history of a country and colonialism as told by an unapologetic and sensitive writer who loves the place they write about." --Zukiswa Wanner, author of
"Spellbinding... [A] fascinating tale driven by a missing man's impact on those left behind. [...] Southern African history is seen from memorable perspectives, and justice is dealt in singular, surprising terms." - Foreword Reviews
"Ndlovu's lyrical writing has reimagined how stories about post-independence Zimbabwe are told, and reflected some of the country's darker moments." -- The Guardian
"Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, with her lyrical prowess, has done a marvelous job of narrating pre- and post-colonial Zimbabwean history in her City of Kings trilogy." -- Global Literature in Libraries Initiative "Here you will find characters to remember." -- The Big Thrill"One of the finest books from Africa." -- Afritondo"Powerful and thought-provoking, [The Quality of Mercy] effortlessly captures the different classes and customs, prejudices and fears as Rhodesia morphs into Zimbabwe." -- Sunday Times
"In its epic and yet intimate portrait of Zimbabwe's colonial past, The Quality of Mercy finds tenderness where few writers dare to look. Ndlovu meets the gaze of white supremacy's henchmen full on, while embracing the complex pleasures of peering beyond social shorthand. Her loving account of Bulawayo and its surrounds across the twentieth century does something rare and breathtakingly hard: it enchants even as it unveils." - Jeanne-Marie Jackson, Associate Professor of English Literature at Johns Hopkins University, author of The African Novel of Ideas: Philosophy and Individualism in the Age of Global Writing"Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu's trilogy of novels reimagine the history of a country much like modern Zimbabwe. Through her multiracial cast ofcharacters (with weighty inheritances) and their fantastical comings and goings, she realizes unpromised futures. The Quality of Mercy, set on the eve of that unnamed country's independence, and organized around a murder mystery, continues that quest." -Sean Jacobs, faculty at The New School and Founder-Editor of Africa Is a Country"Read The Quality of Mercy [and] savour the extraordinary literary gifts of Ndlovu, her matchless cool and humour as she channels Zora Neale Hurston; revel in her dizzying, insistent eloquence as she lays bare the bloodcurdling crimes... Come face to face with the suffering and bravery of the displaced rural folk... Learn the meaning of survival, of the various types of love and the mercy which is their yield." - Barbara Masekela, poet and former Ambassador to France, UNESCO, and the United States&#
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