The Boy Next Door

*Winner of the Orange Award for New Writers*

'Entertaining, ambitious and packed with news from elsewhere, leavened by the precious optimism of youth. Don't miss it.' Independent

A powerful love story set in post-independence Zimbabwe as it slides towards chaos.

'Two days after I turned fourteen the son of our neighbour set his stepmother alight.'

Or so Lindiwe Bishop believes, though eighteen months later the charges against Ian McKenzie are dropped and he returns home, full of charm and swagger. Intrigued, Lindiwe strikes up a covert friendship with the mysterious white boy next door. As a bond grows between them, they cannot foresee how severely it will be tested in the years ahead.

Vividly evoking Zimbabwe's slide from independence into chaos, THE BOY NEXT DOOR tells an engrossing tale about what it means to witness, change, love and remain whole when all around you is falling apart.

'An exuberant, tender and often humorous love story ... Irene Sabatini is a born writer, and she has told a completely engrossing story' Daily Mail