ISBN 9781946395863 | paperback | $19.95 | publication date Sep 2023
The final book in Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s award-winning City of Kings Trilogy
Everyone saw Emil Coetzee drive into the bush the day the ceasefire was announced. Beatrice, busy consoling her friend Kuki over the loss of her son and marriage. Dikeledi, the postwoman who refuses to lean. Tom, the drunk who makes his living impersonating Emil in backroads bars. Vida de Villiers, stuck in a coin-toss choice. Saskia, the feisty reporter determined to ruin Emil’s name. Marion, the enigmatic lover he left behind. Mrs. Louisa Alcott, the lonely farm wife reading Mills & Boon romances in her best dress, waiting for her life to begin. But nobody saw him drive out of it.
So begins the investigation of Spokes Moloi, the first black chief inspector in the City of Kings, who on the eve of his retirement is handed one final crime: the possible murder of Mr. Coetzee, the notorious head of the Organization of Domestic Affairs, who disappeared on the same day the country’s independence beckoned.
In investigating Emil’s disappearance, Spokes’ path collides with an assortment of witnesses with the best and worst of intentions–including a pair of corrupt investigators with an eye towards framing the guerrilla icon Golide Gumede for Emil’s murder, and the insatiable public, infatuated with Emil and unable to come to terms with the fact that the future they had so long anticipated had, at last, arrived.
With a nation in flux and his beloved wife Loveness forever present in his mind, Spokes’ investigation leads him back to the very beginning— and gives him one last chance to solve the twenty-year-old murder case that determined both the path of his life and destiny of his country.
Praise for THE QUALITY OF MERCY
Winner, Outstanding Fiction Book Prize, National Arts Merit Awards (Zimbabwe)
Shortlist, 2023 Sunday Times Literary Awards (South Africa)
“Spellbinding… [A] fascinating tale driven by a missing man’s impact on those left behind. […] Southern African history is seen from memorable perspectives, and justice is dealt in singular, surprising terms.” — Foreword Reviews
“Ndlovu’s lyrical writing has reimagined how stories about post-independence Zimbabwe are told, and reflected some of the country’s darker moments.” — The Guardian
“Through characters whose stories are complex, layered, connected, and twisted by the aftermath of war, this timely book illuminates the possibility of light shining in humanity, despite systematic and pervasive inhumanity. In this, Ndlovu offers readers a walk with the spirit, prayers, grace and power that people of African descent have historically walked with…the audacity to dream, to make way, to Love anyway.” — Sharon Bridgforth, 2022 Windham-Campbell Prize Winner in Drama
A wondrous performance – Ndlovu has succeeded yet again in telling a vast array of stories with intricate elegance. The best quality of this writing is its sustained, precise attention to the hurts and hopes of a diverse cast of characters who exceed every stereotype. Ndlovu proves that we do not yet know how the liberation struggle ends – its unfinished possibilities remain in integrity, justice for the poor, and yes, mercy. —Tsitsi Jaji, Duke University
“In its epic and yet intimate portrait of Zimbabwe’s colonial past, The Quality of Mercy finds tenderness where few writers dare to look. Ndlovu meets the gaze of white supremacy’s henchmen full on, while embracing the complex pleasures of peering beyond social shorthand. Her loving account of Bulawayo and its surrounds across the twentieth century does something rare and breathtakingly hard: it enchants even as it unveils.” – Jeanne-Marie Jackson, Associate Professor of English Literature, Johns Hopkins University
“Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s trilogy of novels reimagine the history of a country much like modern Zimbabwe. Through her multiracial cast of characters (with weighty inheritances) and their fantastical comings and goings, she realizes unpromised futures. The Quality of Mercy, set on the eve of that unnamed country’s independence, and organized around a murder mystery, continues that quest.” –Sean Jacobs, The New School faculty and Founder-Editor of Africa Is a Country
“Read The Quality of Mercy [and] savour the extraordinary literary gifts of Ndlovu, her matchless cool and humour as she channels Zora Neale Hurston; revel in her dizzying, insistent eloquence as she lays bare the bloodcurdling crimes… Come face to face with the suffering and bravery of the displaced rural folk… Learn the meaning of survival, of the various types of love and the mercy which is their yield.” – Barbara Masekela, poet and former Ambassador to France, UNESCO, and the United States
“In a crowded field of superb reads, The Quality of Mercy by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu is our Book of the Year. It’s the final novel in her award-winning City of Kings trilogy, weaving together elements of social comedy and cosy crime while examining the history of a country transitioning from a colonial to a postcolonial state.” —Daily Maverick (South Africa)
“Ndlovu’s most recent novel, perhaps her best yet, reveals the history of a country transitional from colonialism to independence. With compassion and an unflinching eye to important detail, Ndlovu explores the rough side of life in the City of Kings. This epic crime novel also builds up a quirky cast of Dickensian characters at every turn. […] [P]erhaps the most monumental trilogy to come out of Southern Africa. Only time will tell. What is clear now is that Ndlovu’s professorial knowledge is evident in her masterly storytelling. The Quality of Mercy is indeed a novel about mercy and forgiveness. It is also about kinship and unbroken bonds, and how love can be a balm to human trauma. It is a story that deserves to endure into posterity.” — Afrocritik, “Top 25 African Novels of 2022”
Named one of the Best Novels of 2022, Business Day (South Africa)
“The City of Kings trilogy is a deep ocean with many tides that carry you away. Ndlovu manages to hold a host of complex characters and painful histories with compassion, insight and tenderness. Her writing is never strained, even when telling of devastating horror and pain that cuts to the quick. […] This trilogy is beyond words in its scope and depth. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand history, humanity, redemption, or be swept away by magical and utterly compelling storytelling.” —Bridget Pitt, author of Eye Brother Horn
“With the launch of the third in [her] trilogy, author Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu has firmly established herself as a writer not to be ignored. […] She will sweep you off your feet all over again.” — Diane De Beer, arts critic
“Her most remarkable [novel] yet. Clever, compassionate and minutely detailed…” — Business Day (South Africa)
“[W]ritten in glorious prose and with a witty and ironic style […] a powerful novel by a writer of considerable talent.” – Sunday Times Live (South Africa)
The Author
Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu is a writer, filmmaker and academic who holds a PhD in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University, as well as master’s degrees in African Studies and Film. She has published research on Saartjie Baartman and she wrote, directed and edited the award-winning short film Graffiti. Born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, she worked as a teacher in Johannesburg before returning to Bulawayo. Her first novel, The Theory of Flight won the Barry Ronge Fiction Prize in South Africa. In 2022, Siphiwe was awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction.
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