Harvill Secker Acquires Exciting Zimbabwean Debut Novel

Posted at 4:35PM Monday 10 May 2010

10 May 2010
Harvill Secker, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, has bought World English rights to Andrea Eames's first novel The Cry of the Go-Away Bird. Rights were acquired from Vivien Green at Sheil Land. The novel, based on the author's experiences growing up in a white farming family in Zimbabwe in the late 1990s, will be published by Harvill Secker in hardback in February 2011 and in Vintage in 2012.

The narrator of The Cry of the Go-Away Bird, Elise, comes of age during the souring of Mugabe's rule and realises that her idyllic and privileged life is built on past wrongs and that violence is an inevitable part of her future. Liz Foley, Publishing Director, said 'I'm delighted that we will be publishing The Cry of the Go-Away Bird. Andrea Eames has a bright future ahead of her and the accomplishment she shows in handling the tension and characterisation in this gripping novel is incredibly impressive.'

The author

Andrea Eames is a second generation Zimbabwean. Her grandfather moved to Zimbabwe in the 1950s to work for the British South Africa Police and later became a government agent. Her parents grew up during the Second Chimurenga (also known as the Bush War) in the seventies, and she was born in 1985, five years after independence was declared and Mugabe was sworn in as president. Her father died in a car accident while her mother was pregnant, and she and her mother lived in England for a few years before moving back to Zimbabwe when Andrea was four. In Zimbabwe, Andrea attended a Jewish school, a Hindu school, a Catholic convent school, and then the American International School in Harare. Her mother worked on a farm. Andrea has worked as a bookseller and editor in publishing and now lives in Christchurch with her husband. The Cry of the Go-Away Bird is her first novel.