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Author dedicates award to late mom

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“I dedicated All Come To Dust to my mother, and so as the award. I used to discuss the plot with her and she always gave me her honest opinion. I am sad that she did not live to see it published.

BY SHARON SIBINDI

AWARD-WINNING Bulawayo-based author Bryony Rheam has dedicated her Roil Bulawayo Arts Award for Outstanding Literary Work (Fiction) for the book All Come To Dust to her late mother, with whom she used to discuss the plot.

Born in Kadoma in 1974, Rheam went to school in Bulawayo, before moving to the United Kingdom, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in English and Master of Arts in English, respectively.

Rheam wrote her first novel This September Sun published by amaBooks in 2009 and it topped the United Kingdom Amazon chart.

The book was also showcased at the Aké Arts and Book Festival in Nigeria, one of Africa’s leading festivals. All Come to Dust was her second book written in the style of a Christie detective story.

The novel is set in modern-day Zimbabwe, but also looks back to the time just before independence.

Roil Bulawayo Arts Award

“I was very happy when I heard the news. It was great to have my writing recognised in my home town. Of the three books I have written, All Come To Dust was the most difficult to write.

“I was worried that it would not be well-received as it is so different from This September Sun and because it is a crime story. I was disappointed that I was unable to attend the ceremony. I believe it was a very good evening.

Award dedication

“I dedicated All Come To Dust to my mother, and so as the award. I used to discuss the plot with her and she always gave me her honest opinion. I am sad that she did not live to see it published.

Award significance

“I was worried about All Come To Dust as I was not sure that anyone would be interested in it. Although I enjoy reading crime novels, I had never written anything in this vein before.

“The book has had very positive feedback since it was published, and winning the award was extra confirmation that it is a good book.

Writing a detective novel

“I enjoy reading crime and wondered if I could write a story set here in Bulawayo.  However, I was aware that the conventional crime story would not work here, so there were a few challenges to work through.

Other themes in the book

“The novel is also an exploration of Zimbabwean society. All the main characters are lonely and or isolated. I feel that this is the way we have become.

“Politics and the desperate state of the economy has led to us being isolated individuals such that we have become very self-centred and absorbed in our own lives and our own lacks and losses.

“When we do reach out, it is usually to get something, rather than to give. We are all obsessed with the past as well. I find so many Zimbabweans longing for a past when everything was wonderful and everyone was happy — yet did this time ever exist?

Characters

“It is funny, but if I write about a white man, no one asks me if it was difficult to create their character. However, if I write about a black man, there is an assumption that this must be difficult and that suggests that there is only one way to do it. I find this quite limiting.

“Everyone’s character is different. The important thing is to give that character depth and make them real. Edmund also belongs to a fairly familiar landscape: he lives in a city and he is a policeman.

“It would have been far more challenging to write about someone who lives in the rural areas, or someone who lived a hundred years ago.

New project

“My new novel, The Dying of the Light is with my publisher and a collection of my short stories is to be published here by amaBooks and in the United Kingdom by amaBooks in partnership with Parthian Books.

Desires

“I would really like to see the establishment of a major writing award for Zimbabwean writers. It would be wonderful if one of the big businesses here could fund an annual writing award.

“This is something that I believe would assist writers financially as not many of them can devote themselves entirely to writing as their sole career.”

Follow Sharon on Twitter @SibindiSharon

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