Description
This is a tongue-in-cheek, often hilarious account of the dysfunctional lives of a group of expatriates in fictional Zimbabwe. Stella, the central character, wonders if she is the Scarlett O’Hara of Africa, as she juggles with her various roles as hostess, fashion designer, lover, secret agent and spy. Stella, dumped two years ago by her husband, now lives off her father and her bickering gin-swilling racist, oversexed in-laws.
Galloping inflation means extra work at the bridge club, last bastion of the ‘Ancient Britons’, where she falls in love with Dan and life for several months is bliss. Everything starts to go wrong when Dan disappears and her ex-husband, Nic, having served a sentence in jail for illicit diamond smuggling, stoned on marijuana, demands to be taken back.
Dan offers Stella hope for a brighter future but Nic is pleading for her to return and she feels the pull of Africa. What shall she do? Like Scarlett she says, “I can think about that tomorrow.”
