Advanced Praise for The Quality of Mercy"Spellbinding... [A] fascinating tale driven by a missing man's impact on those left behind. [...] Southern African history is seen from memorable perspectives, and justice is dealt in singular, surprising terms." - Foreword Reviews
"Ndlovu's lyrical writing has reimagined how stories about post-independence Zimbabwe are told, and reflected some of the country's darker moments." – The Guardian
"Through characters whose stories are complex, layered, connected, and twisted by the aftermath of war, this timely book illuminates the possibility of light shining in humanity, despite systematic and pervasive inhumanity. In this, Ndlovu offers readers a walk with the spirit, prayers, grace and power that people of African descent have historically walked with...the audacity to dream, to make way, to Love anyway." – Sharon Bridgforth, 2022 Windham-Campbell Prize Winner in Drama
"In its epic and yet intimate portrait of Zimbabwe's colonial past,
The Quality of Mercy finds tenderness where few writers dare to look. Ndlovu meets the gaze of white supremacy's henchmen full on, while embracing the complex pleasures of peering beyond social shorthand. Her loving account of Bulawayo and its surrounds across the twentieth century does something rare and breathtakingly hard: it enchants even as it unveils." - Jeanne-Marie Jackson, Associate Professor of English Literature at Johns Hopkins University, author of
The African Novel of Ideas: Philosophy and Individualism in the Age of Global Writing"Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu's trilogy of novels reimagine the history of a country much like modern Zimbabwe. Through her multiracial cast ofcharacters (with weighty inheritances) and their fantastical comings and goings, she realizes unpromised futures.
The Quality of Mercy, set on the eve of that unnamed country's independence, and organized around a murder mystery, continues that quest." -Sean Jacobs, faculty at The New School and Founder-Editor of
Africa Is a Country"Read
The Quality of Mercy [and] savour the extraordinary literary gifts of Ndlovu, her matchless cool and humour as she channels Zora Neale Hurston; revel in her dizzying, insistent eloquence as she lays bare the bloodcurdling crimes... Come face to face with the suffering and bravery of the displaced rural folk... Learn the meaning of survival, of the various types of love and the mercy which is their yield." - Barbara Masekela, poet and former Ambassador to France, UNESCO, and the United States
"A wondrous performance - Ndlovu has succeeded yet again in telling a vast array of stories with intricate elegance. The best quality of this writing is its sustained, precise attention to the hurts and hopes of a diverse cast of characters who exceed every stereotype. Ndlovu proves that we do not yet know how the liberation struggle ends - its unfinished possibilities remain in integrity, justice for the poor, and yes, mercy." – Tsitsi Jaji, Duke University Associate Professor of English and African and African American Studies, author of
Mother Tongues"The City of Kings trilogy is a deep ocean with many tides that carry you away. Ndlovu manages to hold a host of complex characters and painful histories with compassion, insight and tenderness. Her writing is never strained, even when telling of devastating horror and pain that cuts t
