242pp., hardback, d.w., Edinburgh, 2024

Thriller set in Zambia in the 1990s.

Lawyer Grace Zulu's first client, a queer dancer called Willbess 'Bessy' Mukenga arrested for "offences against nature", goes missing without a trace.

“A cracking thriller that looks back into history to record Kenneth Kaunda’s Zambia of the 1990s. Taking on the despair of freedom fighters, the new elite, corruption and prejudice of all forms, Mwanza jolts and dazzles. Most of all, in The Lions’ Den Iris Mwanza joins a burgeoning cohort of writers shaping the African thriller. Jennifer Makumbi, author of The Kintu Saga and The First Woman

“The Lions' Den is a brave and scathing probe of Zambia's justice system. The language is precise, the plot, tantalisingly tense, and the protagonist is more courageous than the spare prose suggests. Grace is complex and compelling, naïve but with her heart in the right place - the perfect advocate for all the Bessys of Zambia that go undefended. What lingers with me most, though, is the author's talent for blending nostalgia with the truth. Iris conveys hope even in the face of devastation and does the necessary work of shedding light on what continues to be an invisible part of the human rights advocacy movement in Zambia.” Mubanga Kalimamukwento, author of Obligations to the Wounded and The Mourning Bird

Zambian American writer Iris Mwanza is Deputy Director of the Gender Equality Division of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; leads strategy and investment for the Women in Leadership portfolio, and has previously worked as a corporate lawyer in Zambia and the USA.

THE LIONS' DEN

: Mwanza (I.)

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