In a city that has long forgotten its name, at a period in time barely mentioned in history books, the winds of chance bring together several lives at a local bank, for an event that is both a catalyst for some and the culmination of consequence for others.
There is a quaint feeling about the setting, added to by a cast of characters quietly battling personal traumas. Although the place of occurrence is not as important as the events that unfold, because Anywhere is just that, a place that could almost be any of the numerous small towns spread across Zimbabwe.
Conflicts, both on a national scale and the personal are abound, with a deep exploration of the drives behind an eclectic cast of characters. This is Joe Ruzvidzo's Welcome To Anywhere, a novel born out of a short short story ("The Heist" published in his anthology Behind Enemy Lines) that sees the historical clashing with the fantastical in an intriguing work of speculative fiction. Just when you think you've figured out the plot, there's an interesting new twist.
Set in the 90s, the novel is a reflection on a post war society that achieves a fleeting freedom. It tells the story of several figures just trying to find their way in an independent but not so independent Zimbabwe: the widowed mother of one, the son who's dead father's shadow looms over him, the former soldier now without purpose, and a politically connected bank manager.
The coming of age tale of a boy named Billy is at the centre of everything, with purpose and identity being the major themes. This is all contained within provocative storytelling. The story unfolds in just 2 years of his life, yet it feels like a lifetime.
Welcome To Anywhere is a whirlwind, both in the chaos that unfolds and how its progression circles back to moments as if something additional has just been remembered.
It has certain distortions in time period and narrative that make it seem more like a story recited from the mind and in ending it leaves multiple loose ends that leave you seeking closure. Yet despite this and in part due to this it is quite the read. One especially great for any fan of speculative fiction.
An ill wind blew across the tiny, teapot-shaped African nation. It rose in the dry, dusty southwest, howling out of a long-disused mineshaft doubling as a mass grave. As it wove its way along deep gullies and great dykes, whispering like the voices of twenty thousand lost souls, it gusted over a desolate landscape of dead farmland and abandoned mines. - excerpt from Welcome To Anywhere
There is a quaint feeling about the setting, added to by a cast of characters quietly battling personal traumas. Although the place of occurrence is not as important as the events that unfold, because Anywhere is just that, a place that could almost be any of the numerous small towns spread across Zimbabwe.
Conflicts, both on a national scale and the personal are abound, with a deep exploration of the drives behind an eclectic cast of characters. This is Joe Ruzvidzo's Welcome To Anywhere, a novel born out of a short short story ("The Heist" published in his anthology Behind Enemy Lines) that sees the historical clashing with the fantastical in an intriguing work of speculative fiction. Just when you think you've figured out the plot, there's an interesting new twist.
Set in the 90s, the novel is a reflection on a post war society that achieves a fleeting freedom. It tells the story of several figures just trying to find their way in an independent but not so independent Zimbabwe: the widowed mother of one, the son who's dead father's shadow looms over him, the former soldier now without purpose, and a politically connected bank manager.
The coming of age tale of a boy named Billy is at the centre of everything, with purpose and identity being the major themes. This is all contained within provocative storytelling. The story unfolds in just 2 years of his life, yet it feels like a lifetime.
In a world where everyone yearned for a bit of exceptionalism, a sprinkle of the extraordinary in their otherwise dreary lives, Billy was content with his predictable, undisturbed existence.His days were like a perfectly rehearsed dance, with no step out of place, no note off-key. On any given morning, he would awake in his ordinary bed, tucked within an unadorned room in a nondescript part of town... - excerpt from Welcome To Anywhere
Welcome To Anywhere is a whirlwind, both in the chaos that unfolds and how its progression circles back to moments as if something additional has just been remembered.
It has certain distortions in time period and narrative that make it seem more like a story recited from the mind and in ending it leaves multiple loose ends that leave you seeking closure. Yet despite this and in part due to this it is quite the read. One especially great for any fan of speculative fiction.
Title: Welcome To Anywhere
Authors: Joe Ruzvidzo
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Self published
Welcome To Anywhere is available across all major book selling platforms and locally from Book Fantastics.