WHEN A CROCODILE EATS THE SUN

Peter Godwin's tender and searing memoir of the twin declines of the health of his father and his country, Zimbabwe, under President Robert Mugabe is fascinating, depressing, and affirming all at the same time. Motivated by prolonged ill health, his father, George, confesses late in life that he is not the safari-suited Anglo-African they all thought; in fact, he is a Polish Jew whose family perished at Treblinka. In retirement, Godwin's parents find themselves poor as a result of rampant inflation eroding their benefits. Life is further complicated by severe food shortages caused by Mugabe's misguided land reform policies. Godwin reads his own work in an uncomplicated and sympathetic fashion, albeit with frequent justified anger. Adding to the African landscape is his authentic use of native Shona words. A.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2008]