in the fiery environment of an election season, with tensions stoked by an unrelenting heatwave, Danny Walker goes about the business of being a carefree boy. But when a horrific act of violence is visited on his family, his sense of innocence is shattered and his grip on reality slowly begins to fracture. In lean, lyrical prose - reminiscent of the work of J.M. Coetzee and Cormac McCarthy - Zimbabwean writer Ian Holding delivers a mesmerising coming-of-age tale of guilt and responsibility set within the fault-lines of modern Africa.
Ian Holding is Zimbabwean schoolteacher based in Harare. His critically acclaimed debut novel, Unfeeling, was published in 2005, shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2006 and named a Best Book of the Year by the Globe and Mail newspaper. What Happened to Us is his third novel.
His first novel UNFEELING was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, 2006. His short fiction has appeared in the Cambridge Literary Review and received Honourable Mention by the judges of the Manchester Prize. He was a finalist for the Rolex Mentor-Protege Initiative in 2014 and in 2009 and 2015 a Fellow of the Hawthornden Literary Institute.
Praise for OF BEASTS AND BEINGS: "Reminiscent of the hallucinatory lyricism of Michael Ondaatje or Chris Abani ... it resonates with complex ideas about the wages of oppression, racial guilt, and psychological isolation." | THE DAILY BEAST "Extraordinary ... as audacious as it is surprising." | THE DAILY MAIL "Expansive and definitive ... atmospheric and thought-provoking" | THE GUARDIAN "At once merciless, poetic and beautiful ... a postmodern elegy I won't soon forget." | ALICE SEBOLD, AUTHOR OF The Lovely Bones "A memorable and original novel." | THE INDEPENDENT "Holding delivers another powerful tale." | PUBLISHERS WEEKLY "Beautifully written, Holding dazzles with every word, conjuring the raw, unrelenting instincts which drive people" | LIVERPOOL DAILY POST "Holding conveys staggering emotions ... a poetic lament" | CAPE TIMES Praise for UNFEELING: `One of the season's best books.' | NEWSWEEK "Fine characterization and sense of place meet tense, spare prose as Davey embarks on a terrifying act of revenge.' | THE GUARDIAN `Much modern fiction is glossy but empty, but Ian Holding comes from another world. He has courage and wide sympathies ... Holding's description of Davey's great trek, living the way that most black Zimbabweans do, is riveting.' | Maggie Gee | THE TIMES `Holding shows us one corner of this tragic landscape with a raw intensity that mocks his title ... Unfeeling compels attention for the crackling anguish of its mood and the rustling grace of its scenery.' | Boyd Tonkin | INDEPENDENT `Holding builds up his nightmarish picture with intense detail. His descriptions of the land are haunting, his own love of it poignantly vivid ... his work sings.' | Rosemary Goring | GLASGOW HERALD `An outstandingly gifted writer and a dauntingly brave one too ... Holding's novel is written with a devastating blend of control and anger.' | David Robinson | THE SCOTSMAN `Remarkable ... the novel's construction is a tour de force, a kind of narrative corkscrew ... gripping.' | SUNDAY INDEPENDANT
