Peter Godwin mentions often in this memoir that Africa is his home,that he is a white African,and that one day he will return to live in Zimbabwe,the country where he was born in the days when it was called Rhodesia and ruled by a repressive white minority.Should we believe him when he says this,especially as affluent Manhattan is his home and nowadays he is a habitué of the club-class lounge and the luxury hotel? Could he give this up to return to ruined Zimbabwe,one of the most forlorn nations on earth?

Peter Godwin,an award-winning writer,is on assignment in Zululand when he is summoned by his mother to Zimbabwe,his birthplace.His father is seriously ill;she fears he is dying.Godwin finds his country,once a post-colonial success story,descending into a vortex of violence and racial hatred.

His father recovers,but over the next few years Godwin travels regularly between his family life in Manhattan and the increasing chaos of Zimbabwe,with its rampant inflation and land seizures making famine a very real prospect.It is against this backdrop that Godwin discovers a fifty-year-old family secret,one which changes everything he thought he knew about his father,and his own place in the world.

Peter Godwin's book combines vivid reportage,moving personal stories and revealing memoir,and traces his family's quest to belong in hostile lands - a quest that spans three continents and half a century.