Bryony's Blog

It's World Book Day today. We bring you Barbara Mhangami-Ruwende's review of Zimbabwean novel This September Sun.   This September Sun is a searing account of family and “the ties that bind” as told from the perspective of a young woman trying to find her place within her family, her country and her world at large. The story is set in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and begins in dramatic fashion: “On the 18th of April 1980, my grandfather burnt the British flag. I remember because it was my sixth birthday and he ruined it.” From this point on, Rheam reels the reader in to a heady tale of love, hate, deceit and betrayal, laughter and tears, anger and joy, destruction and renewal. Born into a family full of secrets, young Ellie quickly becomes aware of the coldness and the heavy, unarticulated emotions between her grandmother Evelyn and her grandfather Leonard. She is also aware of the tension between her mother Francie and her grandmother and is o...

This blog was originally published on the Caine Prize blog in April 2014 The Bvumba is a special place for me: as a child, my family spent many holidays there and I have lots of special memories of long walks through the jungly terrain, sitting next to a huge open fire in the evenings and watching the mist rise as the sun came up in the morning.   In 1981, we lived for a year in Penhalonga, not far from Mutare along the Mozambican border.   I remember going to school in a very old bus, chugging up Christmas Pass and then that wonderful sense of almost freewheeling it down the other side into Mutare where I went to school.   It was a time of great transition in Zimbabwe: black children were allowed into what had predominantly been white government schools, and many white people were leaving for places such as South Africa and Australia.   The war in Mozambique was still in full force and, for all that we were so near, we may as well have been on a different plane...

Bryony Rheam's novel 'This September Sun', first published in Zimbabwe, last week reached the number 1 spot in the UK Kindle store, the contemporary fiction chart AND the historical fiction chart -ahead of Dan Brown, The Great Gatsby....

Tendai Huchu reviews This September Sun ‘On the 18 th  of April 1980, my grandfather burnt the British flag.’ So begins Bryony Rheam’s genre blending debut novel. Ellie, the main protagonist, is a young girl searching for identity in the self-absorbed, often neurotic postcolonial settler community in Zimbabwe. Her relationship with Evelyn, her grandmother whose cupboard has more skeletons than most, provides a back drop to a narrative that sweeps right from the Second World War through to the early 2000’s. Evelyn leaves her husband, Ellie’s grandfather, and strikes out on her own late in life, forming a new partnership with Miles, a man with his own difficult past, trying to eke a living on a small dust bowl outside of Bulawayo. Through Ellie’s observations we learn of the lives of the small closeted, white Zimbabwean society, dirty laundry is aired, nothing is spared, the illicit affairs, alcoholism, racism, misogyny, hopes, dreams and fears that linger long after...

Spanish Book Club discussion of 'This September Sun' Beaven Tapureta reports for WIN Zimbabwe on the Spanish Book Club discussion of Bryony Rheam’s  This September Sun from http://win-zimbabwe.blogspot.com/2013/02/win-newsletter-issue-no-64.html The discussion was led by writer Eresina Hwede Full participation in any discussion of a work of creative writing is guaranteed by the participants' reading and understanding of the text for criticism.  As this is possible where books are readily available for such purpo se, it then  calls for organizers of book clubs or discussion s  to device strategies that ensure the club members read the book before the day of the discussion. At a discussion of the novel 'This September Sun' held on February 12 at the Spanish Embassy Book Club it was apparent that a few writers had read the novel and the rest were familiar with the novel through blurb and reviews. However, the group discussion at the...

A Conversation with Bryony Rheam from www.panorama.co.zw 
After a heated discussion about Bryony Rheam’s  This September Sun  at the Spanish Embassy book club in Harare, Panorama Magazine decided to extend the conversation by talking to the author. This September Sun  has been published in Wales (Parthian Books) and Zimbabwe (amaBooks) to critical acclaim. It is currently chosen by the Zimbabwe Examination Council (ZIMSEC) as one of the “A” Level English Literature set texts. Bryony Rheam currently lives in Zambia with her family. Firstly, what is This September Sun all about? It is about a young girl growing up in Zimbabwe and her relationship with her grandmother.  The relationship changes over time, but Ellie only moves towards a fuller understanding of Evelyn after the latter’s death. 
What amount of research went into the writing of this novel? For instance, I am curious to know what new things you learnt in the process that you were not a...

This September Sun   was positively reviewed in the April 29, 2013 issue of  Publishers Weekly . The complete review is below and is available online via the link.   This September Sun Bryony Rheam.  $14.95 (420p) ISBN 978-1-906998-53-0 Rheam's debut novel follows Ellie, a shy, bookish girl growing up in Zimbabwe while navigating personal and political drama. The novel opens on Ellie's sixth birthday, a momentous day in her life as it marks two events: Zimbabwe 's independence from Britain , and Ellie's grandmother, Evelyn, leaving her grandfather to live on her own. While Ellie's grandfather feared that independence meant "The end was near" for White settlers like themselves in Zimbabwe, Evelyn embraces the changes as a headstrong woman unafraid of her own freedom. Through her adolescence, Ellie grows closer to her grandmother who encourages her to continue her education in England . After Evelyn dies, Ellie returns to Zimbabwe and...