This September Sun

Winner of Best First Book Award at Zimbabwe International Book Fair 2010. Ellie is a shy girl growing up in post-Independence Zimbabwe, longing for escape from the confines of small-town life. When she eventually moves to Britain, her wish seems to have come true. But life there is not all she imagined. And when her grandmother Evelyn is brutally murdered, a set of diaries are uncovered spilling out family secrets and recounting a young Evelyn's passionate and dangerous affair with a powerful married man. In the light of new discoveries, Ellie begins to re-evaluate her relationship with her grandmother, and must face up to some truths about herself in the process. Set against the backdrop of a country in change, Ellie burdened by the memories and the misunderstandings of the past must also find a way to move forward in her own romantic endeavors.

Bryony Rheam was born in Kadoma, Zimbabwe, in 1974 and grew up in small mining towns until her family finally moved to Bulawayo. She left Zimbabwe at the age of eighteen and went to the UK, where she worked and studied for seven years. After completing her MA at the University of Kent at Canterbury, she taught in Singapore for a year and then decided to return to Zimbabwe in 2001. At the time, everyone thought she was mad to go back to Zimbabwe when many people were leaving as the country was in political and economic crisis. However, the next few years were to provide inspiration for her debut novel, This September Sun (amaBooks, 2009) and her various short stories. She currently lives in Ndola, Zambia, where she is a part-time English teacher. She is currently working on her second novel.