THE LIONS' DEN

242pp., paperback, Reprint, Canongate, Edinburgh (2024) 2025

ISBN:  9781838859954

Thriller set in 1990s Lusaka.

Newly qualified young lawyer Grace Zulu fights for the life of a teenage sex worker accused of crimes "against the order of nature".

"A riveting legal thriller set in the corrupt and homophobic political world of Zambia in the early 1990s ... Mwanza brings her experience as both a former lawyer and a native of Zambia to this provocative page-turner" TIME

"A smash of a debut ... Iris Mwanza has taken it all on, from the original reverberating assault of British colonialism to what happened next, to a sideswipe at contemporary Zambia, and she's done it with literal grace." Alexandra Fuller

Zambian-American lawyer Iris Mwanza is Deputy Director of Women in Leadership in the Gender Equality Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She has worked as a corporate lawyer in both Zambia nd the US. The Lions' Den is her debut novel.