HARARE NORTH

230pp., paperback, Reprint, London, (2009) 2010

Brian Chikwava's debut novel about an illegal Zimbabwean immigrant struggling to make a new life in London (called Harare North by Zimbabweans).

"The darkest of comedies, fueled by an electric, wholly convincing voice."  Observer

"Chikwava has created an utterly compelling anti-hero, who exploits and manipulates everyone around him while retaining a superb grandiosity ('I am a principled man!') and sense of entitlement ... Chikwava's narrator is mesmerising, an amoral chancer who meets his match not in a person, but a place - in Harare North." Guardian

Brian Chikwava (b. 1972) is a Zimbabwean writer and musician living in London.  His short story "Seventh Street Alchemy" was awarded the 2004 Canoe Prize for African writing in English.