When a Crocodile Eats the Sun

Critical Praise

"Peter Godwin's account of his family's history and his parents' lives in an increasingly desperate Zimbabwe is written with the unsparing eye of a journalist and the tender, conflicted emotions of a son. He has written a powerful and deeply affecting book about a family trying to ride the tsunami of change in a country that is coming asunder, a 'tsunami in which you can do nothing but hope to bob up to the surface,' Mr. Godwin writes, 'and not be sucked out into a dark and hungry sea.'"
-New York Times

"Peter Godwin…has observed quite a bit of jambanja at uncomfortably close quarters, and he has meticulously recorded his outraged, torchlit impressions in this remarkable memoir."
-Time magazine

"This is a strong, heroic book about the implosion of an African nation, about the inspiring love of a family for its living and its dead, about quiet courage in the face of sustained and almost unimaginable brutality."
Edmund White, author of A Boy's Own Story

"Peter Godwin's story has the momentum and power of tragedy...The public and private narrative lines entwine in fascinating, devastating ways. And the wry, devoted, conflicted son writes beautifully throughout."
-William Finnegan, author of A Complicated War

"Unraveling his father's past as he documents Mugabe's reign of terror, Godwin offers a haunting look at the persistence of evil—and the power of family love."
-People

"A necessary read for what it reveals about life in Zimbabwe."
-Associated Press

"This moving, often raw portrait of modern Africa, juxtaposed against a very personal story, deserves a place beside Rian Malan's My Traitor's Heart and Alexandra Fuller's Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight."
-Entertainment Weekly

"Godwin, who also wrote Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa, is a straight shooter who tells it like it is, though there are several laugh out loud lines, which create just the right amount of humorous deflection from a somber-toned story. The author is a talented writer - the reader really can feel the African landscape and get a sense of what it would be like to a be a targeted white minority."
-Bookloons.com

"That Godwin managed to produce such a clear, heartfelt, memoir about those crazy, complicated, and difficult experiences in a country devastated by a despot, while avoiding mawkishness and melodrama, is a testament to his skill and thought as a writer, and we are richer for it."
-Popmatters.com

"When a Crocodile Eats the Sun is a difficult but compelling read. While many people will be drawn to it as a sort of documentary on the fall of Zimbabwe, its real attraction should be as the story of a family who struggles to maintain normalcy in a sea of insanity. It is a son discovering who his father is, and by extension who he is. It is also one of the most powerful instances of personal journalism in recent memory."
-Enterstageright.com

"When A Crocodile Eats The Sun is a moving family story, and it certainly portrays the human spirit's strength and the enduring power of love. But it does so in the most heartbreaking way possible: by describing one country's struggle for survival and one family's fight to stay together. A well-written story that brings this country's plight to light."
-Armchairinterviews.com

"Touching and powerful."
-Esquire

"Godwin's potent story has the pull and the pugnacity of an expert fiction, seamlessly blending the personal with the political in a gripping and timely narrative."
-Elle

"Peter Godwin, an award winning journalist and filmmaker who was born and reared in Zimbabwe, has written a moving account of the demise of his father as he lays bare the atrocities that are happening under the tyrannical rule of Robert Mugabee. Even though the book is a memoir and a good one, the book is destined to become an important document in the solution to the chaos that exists in Zimbabwe."
-Myshelf.com

"Sometimes a writer's personal struggles and a nation's history come together into a flawlessly resonant tale. Godwin's memoir is one of those rare times."
-More.com

"A variety of books have now chronicled the nature of life in the erstwhile Rhodesia and South Africa both before and after independence (in the case of Rhodesia) and apartheid (in the case of South Africa). In this regard, in a previous book titled Mukiwa, Peter Godwin lucidly delineated the trials and tribulations of growing up as a white boy in the time period just before and after Rhodesia became Zimbabwe in 1980. In this book, Godwin offers a more contemporary perspective on what life has been like and what it continues to be like in Zimbabwe for people in general and for his proximate family in particular. When a Crocodile Eats the Sun is an excellent book that deserves to be read widely."
-Curledup.com