Of all the countries in Africa, the liberation struggle for independence in Zimbabwe was the longest and bloodiest. Historical fiction has become a popular genre in interrogating our convoluted history. Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, with her lyrical prowess, has done a marvelous job of narrating pre- and post-colonial Zimbabwean history in her City of Kings trilogy.

Bulawayo, affectionately known as the City of Kings, is where The Quality of Mercy unravels, spilling over into the surrounding villages. In this third book of the trilogy, Siphiwe introduces us to Spokes Moloi, a policeman on the verge of retirement, who finds himself entangled in solving the murder mystery of the Emil Coetzee, the head of a sinister intelligence Organization of Domestic Affairs. With deftness, we are introduced to an eclectic cast of characters who include Loveness, Kuki, Saskia and a string of Emil’s paramours.

A filmmaker and academic by profession, Siphiwe is an award-winning novelist, having bagged the prestigious Windham Campbell Prize (2022). She made her stunning debut with The Theory of Flight (2018), the first book in the trilogy which went on to win the Sunday Times Literary Award for Fiction (2019). The second book in the series is titled The History of Man (2020). You don’t need to read them in order as each novel can stand on its own. Fans can look forward to her new novel in 2024, titled “The Creation of Half Broken People” which will be published by Picador Africa, a Pan Macmillan imprint.

Title: The Theory of Flight

Series: City of Kings Trilogy, book one

Author: Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

Publisher: Penguin Random House ; In North America, by Catalyst Press

ISBN: 978-1946395412

Title: The History of Man

Series: City of Kings Trilogy, book two

Author: Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

Publisher: Penguin Random House ; In North America by Catalyst Press

ISBN: 978-1946395566

Title: The Quality of Mercy

Series: City of Kings Trilogy, book three

Author: Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

Publisher: Penguin Random House ; in North America by Catalyst Press.

ISBN: 978-1946395863

Title: The City of Kings Trilogy Bundle (Volumes 1-3)

ISBN: 978-1960803009

Title: The Creation of Half-Broken People (forthcoming)

Author: Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

Publisher: Picador Africa ; in North America by House of Anansi Press.

ISBN: forthcoming

Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s work is published in South Africa and the United States, and can be read in Arabic and Italian translation. Yale University awarded her a Windham-Campbell Prize in 2022, calling her a ‘chronicler and a conjurer whose soaring imagination creates a Zimbabwean past made of anguish and hope, of glory and despair’. Apart from being a writer, Ndlovu is also a filmmaker and academic who holds a PhD from Stanford in Modern Thought as well as Master’s degrees in African Studies and Film from Ohio University. She was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

#ZimbabweLitMonth is curated by novelist Sue Nyathi. She is a published Zimbabwean author of four fiction titles: The Polygamist (2012), The Gold Diggers (2018), A Family Affair (2020), and An Angel’s Demise (2022). She also edited a nonfiction anthology titled When Secrets Become Stories, Women Speak Out (2021). You can visit her website here and follow her on Twitter at @SueNyathi.