Customer Reviews

The Boy Next Door: A Novel

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This is a memorable and highly assured debut novel. In a crowded market of first novels this one stands out both for its unusual setting - Zimbabwe in the years following independence in 1980 - and for its sure handling, a keenly observed story by a writer who clearly knows the world she describes and who is obviously passionate about all her characters.

Lindiwe and Ian are the protagonists, neighbouring teenagers who inhabit very different worlds, she a black Zimbabwean, he a 'Rhodie' with the attitudes of a ruling elite. A terrible event brings them to each other's attention, and through the years of post white-minority rule their relationship develops from immature curiosity to - well you'll just have to read it to find out exactly what. Suffice to say each has a profound effect on the other, as their paths cross while their country goes through increasingly troubled times.

This is described as a love story in promotion and it's certainly that. However I felt it was so much more and that simple description didn't really cover the complexity of the situation. It's love, but love in a world undergoing wider turmoil as the Mugabe government, widely approved as a model of African democracy, descends into a regime of paranoia and fear. The political situation touches the worlds of these characters but it's not central and at its heart this is certainly a novel about people and not politics.

It's to the author's great credit that she breathes life into her characters, with even comparatively minor figures fully rounded and believable. Lindiwe's family are convincingly drawn, with subtlety and at times surprising detail. For example at a distance of thousands of miles and almost three decades it seemed astonishing to me that teenage girls were pinning posters of Duran Duran on their walls in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia just as in Europe and maybe the USA, but in fact they were. The mix of values, of clashing cultures, the search for personal happiness in a new nation racked by corruption, racism and the 'slim disease', all these pervade 'The Boy Next Door' and lift it well above other books you'll see described as 'love stories'.

Highly recommended.

The Boy Next Door, like many good stories, is difficult to characterize. The story of Lindiwe is a coming of age story and a love story. But since begins in Zimbabwe in the 1980s, The Boy Next Door gives us unique insight into the political upheaval and violence that accompanied those early years of independence from British rule.

Lindiwe and Ian McKenzie are both interesting and sympathetic characters in their own right, but the extraordinary circumstances that they find themselves in makes The Boy Next Door an engrossing and memorable read. Irene Sabatini has come up with a brilliant debut novel and I look forward to reading her next work.

Publisher:Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (September 8, 2009), 416 pages.
ISBN: 031604993X
Review copy provided by the publisher.

This love story is set in Zimbabwe during the beginning of Robert Mugabe's leadership. The main characters - Lindiwe a black Zimbabwean and Ian a white Rhodie - meet as teenagers and again as young adults. I found the racism and mutual insecurity the strongest themes in this book. Other topics - like murder, infedelity, abortion, and others - are mentioned so very briefly, I wondered why the author bothered to include them. Interesting first novel, we'll undoubtedly hear more from Sabatini. I hope she'll be able to develop her stories better in future offerings

Breathe in. And out. Where do I begin with this review?

I received this book from Hachette Book Group; I'll start there. It sat on my bookcase for a while before I was ready to pick it up; it was intimidating and large and serious looking and I knew I needed to be ready for it. I started it, and fifty pages in I stopped and restarted it, and I'm glad I did. Restarting it allowed me to settle in with the narrative voice, it let me be fully familiar with Lindiwe and the way she uses memories to fill in the past so I can understand what makes the present so profound. The Boy Next Door is epic. It spans decades. It follows Lindiwe from adolescence through her transformation into a woman. She is fourteen when the novel starts, and her seventeen year old neighbor has been arrested for lighting his stepmother on fire. That's how the novel starts. But that's not where it stays. It follows Lindiwe and her neighbor, Ian, through post-independant Zimbabwe, through race tensions, and revolutionary riots, and love ,and loss, and danger.

Part 1 begins in the 1980's. Lindiwe is a young girl, shy, surrounded by racism and a country in transformation. Ian seems worldly to her, having been released from prison and returned to Bulawayo. They form an unlikely friendship, secret from the world. They are pulled together by an inexplicable bond that lasts through war and riots and years apart.

Part 2, the early 90's, finds Lindiwe grown into a young woman, attending school, with a future. Her childhood crush develops into something mature and deep. But there is always an overhanging sense of unease in Sabatini's writing; as though we know this happiness between Ian and Lindiwe cannot possibly last and be peaceful for the next 200 pages.

Part 3, the mid 90's becomes quick and tense. Revolutionary turmoil abounds, people are killed and murdered and violence surrounds them. The tension continues into the late 90's in Part 4. It peaks and I was left breathless waiting for the end. There is so much more I could write, but it would spoil the novel and you really need to read it and experience it first-hand.

Sabatini's debut novel is intense and beautiful and artistic. She captures Bulawayo and other places in Zimbabwe and they become characters in her writing, living breathing, forming new stories. The relationship she paints between Ian and Lindiwe is enormous and tragic and joyous all at the same time, it flows up and down with a life of its own, and we're taken along in the river and cannot escape. We could hardly wish to.

This novel was a debut novel, and it was beautiful. I had tears in my eyes. I suspect we'll all be hearing about Irene Sabatini in the future.

Set in Zimbabwe from the early 1980s through the late 1990s, Irene Sabatini's debut novel focuses on the racial conflicts which underlie the history of Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, which was under British rule for a hundred years before being granted independence in 1980. Using the love story of a white Rhodesian man and a mixed race, "colored" woman, over the course of almost twenty years, Sabatini traces the country's deterioration economically, culturally, and socially, under President Robert "Bob" Mugabe, who is still president of Zimbabwe after almost thirty years.

The narrative begins in the early 1980s, when Lindiwe Bishop, a young teen, is shocked by a terrible crime. The house next door has been torched, and the stepmother and the father of seventeen-year-old Ian McKenzie have both been burned to death. An unidentified woman has also been seriously burned, taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, and young Ian has been arrested after confessing to the crime. The McKenzies are the "last remaining whites on the street" where Lindiwe lives, and Ian has been a casual friend.

Sabatini quickly establishes the human qualities of her characters, along with their resentments and jealousies as she recreates the social milieu of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. Lindiwe, light-skinned, is symbolic of much of the country in that she has learned to tolerate mockery and even gross abuses in order to survive. With no sense of empowerment, she has a limited, childish view of the country's political situation, and her impressions of the various rebel movements, some of which continue to fight for their own special goals in areas all around her, are equally limited. After Ian is released from prison, she and he form a tight bond, each regarding the other as virtually the only friend.

Skipping significant chunks of time in Part II, she reintroduces Lindiwe seven years later, in the early 1990s, as a graduate student in Harare. Ian is a photojournalist, working largely in South Africa when he returns to Zimbabwe. Throughout, Sabatini keeps the reader abreast of the changing political climate, the social unrest and the riots, the increasing racial violence--this time against whites by young blacks--and the precarious position of those who are "colored." The corruption, the intolerance, the sense of entitlement by soldiers and militias who fought against the white establishment, the economic hardships, the violence of the army and police against those who oppose those currently in power, and the complications created by South Africa and other African countries who may have feared the possible effects of a free Zimbabwe are all explored in detail, especially as they affect Lindiwe, Ian, and their friends.

Though the novel is uneven and takes some time to establish its themes and direction, Sabatini gains her footing for the last half and creates well developed characters facing challenging and emotionally wrenching problems over which they often have no control. As the characters grow over time, the reader develops empathy for them, seeing them as complete human beings caught by circumstances, and though the plot is sometimes melodramatic, Sabatini uses it to connect her characters and show the human costs of the racial divide which has dominated African life for so long. By working actively to "keep it simple," Sabatini creates a memorable picture of post-independence life in Zimbabwe, a picture which does not become blurred by complicated details. n Mary Whipple

"THE BOY NEXT DOOR" BY IRENE SABATINI is a fantastic novel. The setting is Zimbabwe, Africa. The novel tells about the strain and struggle of Zimbabwe to become independent from Rhodesia which had been ruled by the British. Zimbabwe strives to walk on its two feet. Like a toddler taking its first two steps Zimbabwe falls and falls again. In the process of change Zimbabwe becomes an insane, murderous, treacherous place to live.

Irene Sabatini's characters are rich and stretch the mind to look here, there, everywhere for what each character thinks is significant. Lindiwe, Ian, David, Maphosa, Brigette, Ian's real mother and his step mother and the other characters battle for freedom to exist and coexist. None of the characters want to live a life of lies. The characters in "THE BOY NEXT DOOR" are a divided country within themselves.

For me this was so important. I always think of my country as a huge machine grinding along to growth and prosperity with the help of its citizens. We, the people, are the country. As our country groans to grow and walk steadily with pride I am one of the people doing the very same thing in my personal life.

For example, Lindiwe, David and Ian, like Zimbabwe, are fighting for their identity. Lindiwe talks about what it's like to be a colored child and adult. David, comfortable in his white skin, wonders why Lindiwe believes her ethnicity is so important. They love one another and their child, David. Why is it not enough to make love, work, eat, help our elderly parents, go on a trip and mind our business? Why complicate it all by bringing up hard issues? Denying a problem exists can only make the world a happier place. These debates between the couple bleed over on to David's life. Is he colored? Is he white? The carousel goes around and around again while each person reaches for the golden ring. In their country, Africa, they have been taught that "labels" are important. If you are not labeled, you do not, can not exist. You are a phantom of an imagination.

I love this novel because it takes on the issue of putting a person in a box and permanently stamping them with invisible ink. Ink that is as red as Hester Prynne's "A" in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I fear labels. Labels control my individuality. I become stiff and uncomfortable. I become angry because there is no way to grow, stretch, change, become.A label tapes a mother's womb not allowing her baby to be birthed, to become more than he or she is inside of mother.

Labels keep me from flying, from being an eagle touching the sky. I scream. I cry. The characters in Irene Sabatini's novel groan be given a chance to live freely like in their dreams. While reading Irene Sabatini's novel, I thought about labels pasted invisibly on myself. At age, whisper, whisper, do I still wear a label that does not fit? Have I grown strong enough to snatch the label off and live my dream? As Zimbabwe became different, can I change and become more than I am? Irene Sabatini opened the door wide to possibilities. I do believe there is a chance to become a different butterfly.

The Boy Next Door is a story of coming of age in Zimbabwe, with the added wrinkle of interracial relations. We hear much about South Africa and the downfall of apartheit. However, less is known about the savage metamorphosis of the neighboring country from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe. This history of this conflict frames the story in The Boy Next door. It is also the story of an interracial relationship between a white African and a younger native black girl/woman. These intertwined stories make for a powerful first novel by Irene Sabatini. The story is captivating, although at times it becomes a bit confused. This confusion arises from this reader's unfamiliarity with the geography and history of the struggle within Zimbabwe. A map and historical time line would have been helpful. But, overall, this was a good read.

"The Boy Next Door" is an engrossing novel that starts out as a mystery of sorts (did Ian really do it?) in which curiosity about her neighbor leads to friendship and then love. But it's not an easy love.

The writing style was a bit rambling at times, especially at the beginning when the story often sidetracked in time or focus. However, I didn't find this distracting and was able to follow what was going on. The author also primarily wrote in the present tense ("he says" instead of "he said"), but for once this didn't bother me at all.

The characters were complex and often hurting as they dealt with realistic problems. I came to care about them a great deal. The novel wasn't dark, but it was gritty and painfully honest. Bits about the violence of the war were briefly told in the story (but not in "blood-and-gut" detail).

There was some mention of church, church activities, etc., but this isn't a "Christian" book. Both Christians and non-Christians will enjoy it.

There was some slang and local terms that were not completely obvious from context nor explained (though most were explained much later), but understanding these words was not critical to understanding what was going on.

Ian (and occasionally others) used some cussing and swearing in his dialogue, so there was a minimal amount of bad language. There was unmarried, very non-graphic sex (in fact, sometimes I wasn't sure if that's what happened). I liked that there were realistic consequences to all of the characters' actions including sex. Overall, I'd highly recommend this book as well-written, fairly clean reading.


Review by Debbie from Genre Reviews (genrereviews. blogspot. com)