The Boy Next Door

by: : Irene Sabatini
Published in London, Sceptre, 2009

Black Lindiwe and white Ian are living in a formerly white neighbourhood in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, a country with millions struggling to get on with their lives, a nation racked by corruption and racism in the years followed the freedom from British colonial rule.

A relationship between the two started when they were teenagers in 1980. Ian will be imprisoned for a year convicted of killing her stepmother then freed quickly and decided to depart to South Africa. They were brought back together to face the challenge of being a mixed race couple, the hostility of Lindiwe mother; a social climber in new Zimbabwe, and Ian mental illness. Will they find happiness in such a wide turmoil and culture clashes in a declining economic and social situation?