Advanced Praise for The Quality of Mercy
“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
"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 at Johns Hopkins University, author of The African Novel of Ideas: Philosophy and Individualism in the Age of Global Writing
“Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s trilogy of novels reimagine the history of a country much like modern Zimbabwe. Through her multiracial cast ofcharacters (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, faculty at The New School 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
"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 Associate Professor of English and African and African American Studies, author of Mother Tongues
"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
"The dazzling, heartbreaking, humane and heroic finale to a trilogy of extraordinary literary fiction." — Helen Moffett, Charlotte
"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)
"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)
Praise for Book 2, The History of Man
"60 Notable Books of 2022" —Open Country Magazine
"The Best Books to Read in January" —BuzzFeed
"63 Anticipated African Books of 2022" —Brittle Paper
"[The History of Man] braids the social and the personal. Her style is deceptively simple as she describes the great mysteries of how we come to be who we are. Through the figure of Emil, a white man on the wrong side of Zimbabwean liberation history, she paints a fine-grained portrait of lost forms of Rhodesian city life." —Jeanne-Marie Jackson, The New York Times
“With rhythmic prose and sly humor, The History of Man tells the story of one man’s inevitable failure to live up to his potential.” —Foreword Review
“The History of Man extracts the history and beating heart of an unnamed African country, seen through the eyes of one man, Emil Coetzee, a white male in his fifties, on the eve of his country’s ceasefire. Emil reflects on his life, from boyhood to adulthood, and Ndlovu reveals it with empathy, generosity, and unflinching truth.” —The Rumpus
"Ndlovu impresses with a fresh and astute perspective on colonialism, race, and family that focuses on white South African-born civil servant Emil Coetzee, who appeared in the author’s debut, The Theory of Flight. [...] Ndlovu deserves credit for her brilliant and meticulous characterization. This leaves readers with much to think about." — Publishers Weekly
“Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu is both a chronicler and a conjurer whose soaring imagination creates a Zimbabwean past made of anguish and hope, of glory and despair: the story of the generations born at the crossroads of a country's history.” — 2022 Windham Campbell Prize committee
"In her prize-winning debut novel The Theory of Flight, Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu surprised and delighted readers and critics with her ingenious excavation of the post-colonial moment in an unnamed Zimbabwe-esque Southern African country. In The History of Man, her second novel, she turns her attention back in time to the colonial era, in the same country. While quite different in tone, more linear and less obviously touched by folklore and magic, it shares its predecessor's intriguingly slippery relationship with history, and its author's skilful execution." — Sunday Times (South Africa)
"From the author of The Theory of Flight, this book is a remarkably insightful and sensitive ‘excursion into the interiority of the coloniser’ – at once a psychological exploration and a searing political examination, but at its core intensely human and filled with empathy and pathos." — Jet Club (South Africa)
"[A] superb piece of writing, and a troubling and thought-provoking book." — The Witness (South Africa)
"Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s The History of Man allows the reader to feel and sympathize with an unlikeable protagonist, which, in itself, is a feat in storytelling. The History of Man is not just a history of man but a history of a country and colonialism as told by an unapologetic and sensitive writer who loves the place they write about." —Zukiswa Wanner, author of London Cape Town Joburg
"Ndlovu's perceptive portrayal of her central character at once highlights both the complexities and subtleties of the colonial endeavour. Her strength is enabling her readers to feel both anger and sympathy for him, for he is a real character and certainly no stereotype. Ndlovu looks beyond the limits of race, revealing the sadness, the vulnerability, the sheer joy of being human." — Bryony Rheam, author of This September Sun
"The ego and paradox of the well-meaning colonizer, and the ways they naively deny the fallacies and violence of colonization, are at the heart of Ndlovu’s exuberant tale. In Emil Coetzee, Ndlovu paints a nuanced portrait of a man whose ambition and desires blind him to truths he refuses to reckon with. This sentient history is one a reader won’t soon forget." — Anjali Enjeti, author of The Parted Earth
"A transfixing story of the corrosive stains of racism and colonialism." — Financial Mail
Praise for Book 1, The Theory of Flight
“Ndlovu’s deeply moving and complex novel is astonishing for the amount of hope it evokes despite the darkness that’s so pervasive in Genie’s world, where she creates her own reality in order to survive. This transcendent and powerful testament to the indomitable human spirit is not to be missed.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“The Theory of Flight is a prodigious, time-stopping concerto that decisively places Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu on the global stage. A writer to watch.” —NoViolet Bulawayo, author of We Need New Names
“A dazzling novel of delicate and astonishing magic. The Theory of Flight is a joyful tapestry of characters shaped but never deformed by the tensions of the times they traverse, narrated in prose of devastatingly beautiful simplicity.” Tsitsi Dangarembga, Booker Prize shortlisted author of Nervous Conditions and This Mournable Body
“An unnamed country in the southern part of Africa springs to life in this delicate work of magical realism. […] The Theory of Flight is unlike anything you’ve read before.” — Bustle
“When we want to base our shared reality with each other on facts, we also must allow, acknowledge, and cherish the existence of magic. The Theory of Flight is full of magic, a magic willing to be observed by eyes that can see the beauty in knowledge, facts and far beyond.” — Full Stop Magazine
“[The Theory of Flight] strikes what feels like an impossible balance—splitting its attention between how history defines lives and how lives, nonetheless, exceed such historical definition … it exemplifies the most textured work emerging from the region.” — Jeanne-Marie Jackson, Public Books
“When I reached the final pages of Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s The Theory of Flight, I recognized that I had read something truly rare: an intelligent novel with a big heart.” —The Rupture
“This epic novel weaves magical realism and myth in the life story of Imogen “Genie” Zula Nyoni (who is HIV positive) and her South African family history, including wars, poverty, colonization, love and race.” —POZ Magazine
“Incandescent and wryly largehearted, The Theory of Flight is a tale of epic scope. Ndlovu’s unique and beautifully composed debut confirms her right away as that rare phenomenon: a born storyteller with a poet’s ear. Beguiling, brilliant and brave.” —Masande Ntshanga, author of Triangulum
“An epic novel written with such wit and ingenuity. I was unable to put this book down, in awe of Ndlovu and her stunning virtuoso, the ways she brings these unforgettable characters into a magical world with such delightful of prose. Beautiful and utterly sublime. My novel of the year.” — Novuyo Tshuma, author of House of Stone
“Here is a story of the most beautiful liberation struggle, a quest to inhabit the wilds of the imagination. Ndlovu peels back the shroud of despair that haunts Zimbabwe forty years after independence, to look with rare empathy at the inner lives of characters we would more likely pity or fear than love. Told with a potent blend of historical detail, magical realism and the matter-of-factness of those who live close to death, this reverse Icarus fable dares imagine that no matter how humble, any person of courage, conviction and radical tolerance can soar into true freedom.”— Tsitsi Jaji, author of Mother Tongues
“With the lightest of touches, a cast of unforgettable characters, and moments of surreal beauty, The Theory of Flight sketches decades of history in this unnamed Southern African nation. It does not dwell on what has been lost in its war, but on the daily triumphs of its people, the necessity of art, and the power of its visionaries to take flight.” — Tropics Magazine
