Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48203 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Observer
'a compelling portrait of a ruined country.'

Daily Telegraph
'she writes with sympathy and concision, and balances the needs of
her twin stories.'

The Spectator
'compelling...Lamb has a remarkable pair of stories to tell, and does so extremely well.'

Customer Reviews

Superb book.
This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is riveting and nearly impossible to put down. I would highly recommend it.

House of Stone is written by Christina Lamb, an English journalist. In the opening passages I wasn't too sure if I trusted this author yet as I thought she was exaggerating (this is the scene where she describes a city's main market as reduced to rubble). I then turned the page to see a photograph depicting the rubble and it was there that my hesitation and disbelief dissolved.

The author takes the life story of two very different Zimbabweans and she chronicles this against the backdrop of the major political events of the past 45 years. She also interweaves the history of Zimbabwe dating back over a hundred years, to when the country was first colonised. The protagonists are a white educated male born into a wealthy farming family and a poor black female with only a primary education who hailed from an underprivileged rural background.

The book is incredibly informative and yet it is never laborious or dry. This is a book that took me through a range of emotions from shock and horror to disbelief and sadness. I thought I had very strong beliefs about Zimbabwe before I read this book. I thought I had a very politically left position on matters there and I was convinced Mugabe was an evil man and that gross human rights violations were taking place. The truth is that I had no idea and that my mind could not have even conceived how bad things really are there. The point is not to discuss my politics but that knowledge is power and I would urge everyone to read this book so that they too can get an idea of what is going on in Zimbabwe and once armed with the truth, they can act accordingly.

Two sides of the coin
This book is an excellent read for anyone interested in knowing more about the current social and political situation in this beautiful country.
What I liked the most is the fact that the author describes the situation from the point of view of people from different backgrounds: a black lady raised in poverty and a white man born in a farming community, sent to good schools and well-travelled.
I absolutely loved. Fully recommend it,
Paola Barcacel.-

Easy read but with distortions
This book is a very easy read but spoiled by several errors of fact, many of which do not materially affect the story, but definitely reflect the political views of the author. As an example she refers to Nigel Hough's brothers and sisters also losing their farms whereas none of the sisters ever had a farm and even the brother, if he had one at all, only had it for a very short time. It appears to be an attempt to depict white Zimbabweans as all being landowners, which was nowhere near the case.