In this novel set in 1980s Zimbabwe, bullies, victims, and bystanders in a boys' boarding school form the drama, and white British high-school student Robert Jacklin plays all three roles. Rooted in the author's personal experience, the story describes school conflict that echoes the unrest of national politics. The local whites hate President Mugabe for taking their land, but Robert's dad at the British embassy is thrilled that the blacks are getting back the land they lost. Or are they? With a huge cast of students and teachers, it is not easy to keep the characters straight. Wallace never romanticizes either side, though. The racist insults and the constant violence extend from the dormitory and classroom to the local villages, and as the students join the turmoil, Robert must confront his own shame. The story's climax is over the top, but the fast-paced school drama, with issues about guilt, survival, and responsibility, will pull older teens, and adults, too.--Rochman, Hazel Copyright 2010 Booklist

Zimbabwe in the 1980s is a hostile place. Civil war has ended white minority rule and made Robert Mugabe prime minister, but tensions between blacks and whites remain high. Although a few black students are enrolled at the boarding school white thirteen-year-old Robert Jacklin attends at the behest of his idealistic father, talk among the students is often about how to restore the "old ways" -- white ruling-class privilege. Jacklin soon learns that the only way to survive the boys' vicious hierarchy is to become mates with a stronger boy, chief bully Ivan Hascott. Jacklin goes along with Ivan's racist slurs, cruel pranks, and, eventually, the "games" that terrorize neighboring black families, because doing so offers protection from the hazing that made his first year almost unendurable. But when Ivan's plans take a deadly turn, Jacklin has to decide where he stands. Wallace's account of violence, racism, and homophobia is ugly and painful to read, but contained within the brutality is a visceral depiction of how the personal becomes the political. With Mugabe's rule becoming more and more of a dictatorship, the question running through the novel -- "If you were in front of Hitler with a gun, wouldn't you squeeze the trigger?" -- resonates even after Jacklin makes his own harrowing choice. anita l. burkam (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Gr 9 Up-Unhappy in a new country and a new boarding school in recently independent Zimbabwe in the late 1980s, Robert Jacklin joins class leaders whose bullying games become increasingly violent and anti-black as they fight to regain their lost country, culminating, in his senior year, in a plan to assassinate Mugabe. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A Separate Peacelike inevitability; narrator Robert is liberal with "had I but known" statements foreshadowing some kind of doom. But as Robert's mentor in brutality becomes ever more unhinged, the tension ratchets up and the book turns into a first-rate, surprisingly believable thriller. In its portrayal of race relations in a wounded country as well as of the ugly power dynamics of a community of adolescent boys, this novel excels, bringing readers up to the grim, uncertain present with mastery. (Historical fiction. 14 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Wallace's debut, inspired by his own experiences as a teen, is a bleak, morally complex, and emotionally charged coming-of-age story set in Zimbabwe during the turbulent 1980s, just after Robert Mugabe's controversial rise to power. Robert Jacklin is a young man from England, whose family has moved to Africa as part of a diplomatic posting, and he's promptly sent to Haven, a prestigious boarding school struggling to cope with the new social order. Over the next few years, Robert deals with hazing, unconventional teachers, and his dysfunctional family, while trying to develop his own identity. Against his better judgment, he befriends cruel and controlling Ivan Hascott, a fellow white student, whose family has suffered under Mugabe's rule, and who urges Robert to join him in tormenting black Africans. Robert grows distraught over Ivan's increasingly violent actions, his own accountability, and the tumultuous state of the country. His turmoil finally builds to a climactic moment that will haunt him for the rest of his life. Racial conflict, corruption, and the cycle of abuse are conveyed with authenticity in this uncomfortable, unvarnished story. Ages 15-up. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.