'Whatever Happened to Rick Astley?' launched in Bulawayo

Bryony Rheam's short story collection Whatever Happened to Rick Astley? was launched on July 22 at Still Haven in Bulawayo.

The video, kindly made by Ernest Mackina, shown here gives an impression of the venue and the launch - hope you enjoy it.

Bryony says that: 'Whatever Happened to Rick Astley? is a collection of 16 short stories written over the last 20 years. Perhaps more than my novels, they depict a variety of different characters facing different situations in their lives. The majority of the stories have a Zimbabwean flavour, and are set either here or in the diaspora, but explore universal feelings of longing, love and loss. Although none are purely autobiographical in nature, they are either inspired by people I have met, situations I have witnessed, or things I have experienced, like the piano tuner I met in Ndola, an old lady I saw shouting at a man to go to the back of the queue, and the approach of middle age.

'The story Whatever Happened to Rick Astley? is  based on a Facebook post I wrote a couple of years ago. It was Friday night, I was drinking peppermint tea and trying to stay awake until ten o'clock when I had to fetch Sian from youth group. I was thinking of all the Friday nights I spent as a teenager, desperate to go out somewhere, and how my mum would always be waiting up for me and my sister, sitting at the kitchen table in her blue dressing gown. Although I was quite content to be at home reading my book, I was also uncomfortably aware of life changing. 

'It's a story about having dreams, about being excited about the future, but then discovering how quickly life goes by, how you suddenly realise you were handed the baton and you didn't even know it, and it's up to you to take over. Although it's a story about getting older, it's also a story about accepting where you are in your life and how there is always something to celebrate. My stories are not political. An Amazon reviewer once wrote about This September Sun that they were hoping to find out more about Mugabe from reading the book and were sadly disappointed. I am afraid this reader is likely to be disappointed once again. The Zimbabwean government has taken enough from its citizens for me to allow them to dominate my narrative as well. But saying that, perhaps there is a message here about growing up and moving on, something I feel we as Zimbabweans are fearful of, but need to do.  Rick Astley has recently made a comeback, and that’s what we need to do as well.'

The Launch of All Come to Dust in Bulawayo

 Bryony Rheam's second novel, All Come to Dust, was launched  in Bulawayo in the garden of the Zimbabwe Academy of Music. There was a good turn out and the socially distanced audience gave the book an enthusiastic welcome. Luckily the rain held off. The scene was set by Bryony's youngest daughter, Ellie, playing 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' (The Wizard of Oz features in the novel) on her violin. Drew Shaw introduced Bryony and Mzana Mthimkhulu also spoke at the launch about Bryony's writing. 

For those unable to attend the launch there was a book signing a few days later at Still Haven. All Come to Dust follows the success of Bryony's debut novel This September Sun. 

The new novel opens with Marcia Pullman being found dead at home in the leafy suburbs of Bulawayo. Chief Inspector Edmund Dube is onto the case at once, but it becomes increasingly clear that there are those, including the dead woman’s husband, who do not want him asking questions.The case drags Edmund back into his childhood to when his mother's employers disappeared one day and were never heard from again, an incident that has shadowed his life. As his investigation into the death progresses, Edmund realises the two mysteries are inextricably linked and that unravelling the past is a dangerous undertaking threatening his very sense of self.

Bryony Rheam is an enthusiast for the writing of Agatha Christie and, at one level, All Come to Dust can be read as a crime novel in Agatha Christie style set in an African city. But, as Bryony said in a recent interview in Mosi oa Tunya Review, 'All Come to Dust is more than just a crime novel in the sense that it is also an exploration of where we are today in Zimbabwe and how in so many senses we have lost our way.  We treat each other badly; we exploit the poor; we look after ourselves first. Each of the characters has some sort of problem that they have to overcome and each of them have a connection with the past that is holding them back.  I feel that in Zimbabwe, we constantly live in the shadow of the past.'

Comments from readers of the novel have been positive, including 'Loved every single page, even cried a couple of times' and 'I neglected everything yesterday so that I could finish the book - even during power cuts I was reading by lantern light! Agatha Christie would be very proud of you!'

Nigerian award winning writer Yejide Kilanko wrote that,'The beauty of All Come to Dust is its refusal to be called one thing. It’s complicated, just like life. We follow flawed, authentic characters as they navigate their changing world and acknowledge that the past, buried or not, always nips on the present’s heels.’ 

The novel is now available in Zimbabwe and online through the African Books Collective in North America. It will be available in bookshops and online in the United Kingdom later this year, jointly published by amaBooks and Parthian Books.