Hearty congratulations to Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, whose novel THE QUALITY OF MERCY has been shortlisted for South Africa’s most coveted literary award, the SUNDAY TIMES Fiction Prize. Ndlovu won the prize previously with her debut, THE THEORY OF FLIGHT, and was again shortlisted for her book THE HISTORY OF MAN.

THE QUALITY OF MERCY tells the story of Spokes Moloi, a police officer of spotless integrity, who, on the eve of his retirement, investigates one final crime. Spokes is working the case of the possible murder of Emil Coetzee, head of the sinister Organisation of Domestic Affairs, who disappeared on the same day a ceasefire was declared on the cusp of their country’s independence. In following the tangled threads of Coetzee’s life, Spokes raises and resolves conundrums that have haunted him, and his country, for decades under colonial rule. In all this, he is staunchly supported by his paragon spouse, Loveness, and his unofficially adopted daughter, the unorthodox postman Dikeledi.

In this magnificent novel, Ndlovu showcases the history of a country transitioning from a colonial to a postcolonial state with a deft touch and a compassionate eye for poignant detail. THE QUALITY OF MERCY recently won Zimbabwe’s National Arts Merit Award (NAMA) for outstanding fiction. The novel is published in South Africa by Penguin Random House and in the United States by Catalyst Press. For rights information, contact The Lennon-Ritchie Agency.