When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa Horror Book Review

Hailed by reviewers as “powerful,”“haunting” and “a tour de force of personal journalism,”When A Crocodile Eats the Sun is the unforgettable story of one man’s struggle to discover his past and come to terms with his present. Award winning author and journalist Peter Godwin writes with pathos and intimacy about Zimbabwe’s spiral into chaos and, along with it, his family’s steady collapse. This dramatic memoir is a searing portrait of unspeakable tragedy and exile, but it is also vivid proof of the profound strength of the human spirit and the enduring power of love.

“In the tradition of Rian Malan and Philip Gourevitch, a deeply moving book about the unknowability of an Africa at once thrilling and grotesque. In elegant, elegiac prose, Godwin describes his father’s illness and death in Zimbabwe against the backdrop of Mugabe’s descent into tyranny. His parent’s waning and the country’s deterioration are entwined so that personal and political tragedy become inseparable, each more profound for the presence of the other”—Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon

“A fascinating, heartbreaking, deeply illuminating memoir that has the shape and feel of a superb novel.” -Kurt Anderson, author of Heydey