Fool's Gold

In this debut short story collection, readers follow the lives of an array of characters – from three distinct corners of Zimbabwean society. The collection begins with the political elite: we enter the inner sanctum of the country’s Minister of Mine’s hotel room, where he brokers back-door deals with foreign investor. The Minister is part of the country’s new money: rich, well-connected and scheming. He is confident that his latest deal with one of China’s shadowy businessmen will work seamlessly, yet the business deal takes an unexpected turn that neither parties anticipate. In Bulawayo’s township, we witness Tabitha – a young, single mother of three children, as she struggles. She works as a market woman, living on the fringes of society, and as time progresses, she is increasingly unable to handle the difficult cards that life has dealt her. Across the city, in Bulawayo’s Indian domiated neighbourhood, an old Indian shop owner Mr. Azzizz and his loyal life-long servant Thomas, from Malawi struggle as they grow old and age in a city that is rapidly transforming for the worse. Although both are immigrants, their long stay in their adopted homeland means they have no roots, and they struggle to adapt in a city which is slowly leaving them behind.