I must admit things have been very busy in these parts - what with the bloke having one of those "zero" days and the resulting "big weekend" that came along with that. But reading has still been happening... slowly.
ZULU is a book that was being read on Murder and Mayhem - and I was late to the discussion mostly because I couldn't find the book - hunted high and low for it before finally tracking it down. Then the aforementioned big weekend, and well I mostly missed the discussion. But I'm very glad I read this book even though it was one of the most violent and confrontational I've read in a while.
From the Blurb:
As a child, Ali Neuman narrowly escaped being murdered by Inkatha, a militant political party at war with Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. His father and brother were not so lucky. Only he and his mother survived the carnage of those years. But as with many survivors, the psychological scars remain. Ali has been makred, indelibly, by the brutality of those years, and healing only comes at a price.
Opening Lines:
"Are you scared, little man? .... Tell me, are you scared?" Ali said nothing - too many vipers in his mouth. "You see what happens, little Zulu? You see?"
As a child, Ali Neuman narrowly escaped being murdered by Inkatha, a militant political party at war with Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. His father and brother were not so lucky. Only he and his mother survived the carnage of those years. But as with many survivors, the psychological scars remain. Ali has been marked, indelibly, by the brutality of those years, and healing only comes at a price.