The Leper Compound

Zimbabwe and South Africa at the last half of the 20th century provide the complex backdrop for Nangle’s melancholy debut. Structured as a series of snapshots in the life of Colleen, daughter of a white farmer and a former missionary, the book looks at the harrowing transitions from white to black rule. As a child, Colleen survives malaria in then-Rhodesia, which leaves her with a lifelong legacy of hallucinatory dreams that may or may not have a real-world basis. She also learns to cope with her younger sister’s schizophrenia. The guerrilla warfare of the 1970s creates a tacit barrier between Colleen and her many Shona friends (the Shona people make up a majority in Zimbabwe). Their reluctance to tell Colleen the truth about their political activities causes her to inadvertently betray them. Over time—and with a few harrowing adventures of her own as she studies nursing in South Africa, marries and gives birth to a son—the number of black Africans in Colleen’s life dwindles. She is herded into a purely white world, despite the end of apartheid. While a simple coming of age tale on the surface, Nangle’s poetic and often heartbreaking story exposes racism’s insidious effect on all concerned. (Jan.)