When a Crocodile Eats the Sun

WHEN A CROCODILE EATS THE SUN: A MEMOIR OF AFRICA; Peter Godwin; New York: Little, Brown, 2007; nonfiction; 344pgs.
In Zimbabwe, a solar eclipse means a crocodile has eaten the sun and is a very bad omen indeed. Peter Godwin details the destruction of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe by Robert Mugabe (of the crocodile clan) in this poignant memoir that also describes Godwin's father's decline and death.
The Jewish diaspora plays a role in Godwin's story, as does the less well known white and middle-class black diaspora which has left Zimbabwe a terrifying shell of a country ruled by a wealthy and sadistic few who have neither mercy nor shame. The tenderness of Godwin's relationships with his parents and sister and their kindly neighbors stands in stark contrast to the cruel excesses of Mugabe's regime in a land where it is not possible to protect the people
you love.