Sharp and blackly humorous, The Death of Rex Nhongo follows five marriages and one gun, which collide on the streets of Harare, Zimbabwe. When Patson finds a gun in his taxi, it gives a jolt to a marriage already balancing on the knife-edge of poverty. Shuttling disaffected British expats, avoiding intelligence officers and supporting deluded relatives from the country, Patson weaves a web through a city that can speak of only one thing: General Rex Nhongo, and the rumours surrounding his death. This is a portrait of marriage under pressure; of husband and wife in breakdown, breakup and breakthrough. Portraying racial pride or middle class guilt, government conspiracy or childhood compulsion, C. B. George never softens his grip on the uncomfortable truth.
