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A review by half_book_and_co
An Act of Defiance by Irene Sabatini
4.0
4,5
"She wills a memory an act of defiance- something whole and true that the comrades cannot take, touch."
It's the year 2000 in Harare. Gabrielle is a lawyer who works on the case of a young girl who accuses an older - and politically quite powerful - man. At the same time, Gabrielle meets Ben, a young US-American working as the assistant to the assistant of the culture attachée of the US embassy and the two start falling for each other. But then something truly horrific happens and all of their lives fall apart.
Through jumps in the timeline, Irene Sabatini throws the reader first in the middle of the abyss while parallelly she slowly unravels what had happened to lead to it - and she then goes on to sound the repercussions of violence and a suppressive political order like Mugabe's regime. This novel is partly a political thriller, part love story, with a dash of courtroom drama; always highly entertaining and through its dialogue-heavy style immensely readable. There are so many things going on in my life right now and I can hardly ever concentrate, but An Act of Defiance grabbed my attention and only let go when I turned the last page.
Sabatini created a memorable, complex character with Gabrielle who has to navigate her life between being defiant, her wish to be free, her anxieties and fears and the desire to create some change. I found myself rooting for her - even when she made some questionable decisions.
"She wills a memory an act of defiance- something whole and true that the comrades cannot take, touch."
It's the year 2000 in Harare. Gabrielle is a lawyer who works on the case of a young girl who accuses an older - and politically quite powerful - man. At the same time, Gabrielle meets Ben, a young US-American working as the assistant to the assistant of the culture attachée of the US embassy and the two start falling for each other. But then something truly horrific happens and all of their lives fall apart.
Through jumps in the timeline, Irene Sabatini throws the reader first in the middle of the abyss while parallelly she slowly unravels what had happened to lead to it - and she then goes on to sound the repercussions of violence and a suppressive political order like Mugabe's regime. This novel is partly a political thriller, part love story, with a dash of courtroom drama; always highly entertaining and through its dialogue-heavy style immensely readable. There are so many things going on in my life right now and I can hardly ever concentrate, but An Act of Defiance grabbed my attention and only let go when I turned the last page.
Sabatini created a memorable, complex character with Gabrielle who has to navigate her life between being defiant, her wish to be free, her anxieties and fears and the desire to create some change. I found myself rooting for her - even when she made some questionable decisions.