Format: Paperback / softback
The Last Resort: a memoir of Zimbabwe is a remarkable true story about one family in a country under siege, and a testament to the love, perseverance, and resilience of the human spirit.
Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Douglas Rogers escaped the dull future mapped out for him by his parents for one of adventure in Europe and the US. But when President Robert Mugabe launched the violent programme to reclaim white-owned land and Rogers's parents were caught in the cross-fire, everything changed. Owners of Drifters, a popular game farm and backpackers lodge in the Eastern Highlands, Lyn and Ros found their home under siege, their friends and neighbors expelled, and their lives in danger. But instead of leaving, as their son pleads them to, they haul out a shotgun and decide to stay.
On returning to the country of his birth, Douglas finds his once orderly home transformed into something resembling a Marx Brothers romp crossed with Heart of Darkness: marijuana has supplanted maize; prostitutes have replaced college students as guests; and soldiers, spies, and teenage diamond dealers guzzle beer at the bar. Beyond the farm gates, meanwhile, rogue politicians, witch doctors, and armed war veterans circle like hungry lions.
And yet in spite of it all, Rogers's parents - with the help of friends, farm workers, lodge guests and residents, among them black political dissidents and white refugee farmers - continue to hold on. In the midst of a nation stuck between its stubborn past and an impatient future, Rogers begins to see his parents in an entirely new light: unbowed, with passions and purpose renewed, even heroic.
The Last Resort is an inspiring tale about home, love, hope, responsibility and redemption. An edgy roller-coaster adventure, it is also a deeply moving story about how to survive a corrupt dictatorship with a little innovation, humour, bribery, and brothel management.
CONTRIBUTORS: Douglas Rogers
EAN: 9781868423897
COUNTRY: South Africa
PAGES:
WEIGHT: 500 g
HEIGHT: 210 cm
PUBLISHED BY: Jonathan Ball Publishers SA
DATE PUBLISHED: 2010-10-01
CITY:
GENRE: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / General, HISTORY / Africa / South / Republic of South Africa
WIDTH: 148 cm
SPINE:
Book Themes:
True stories: general