I have not read a book that has disturbed me this much in a long time. It pulls no punches, refuses to romanticize a very complicated time and place, and lays unfathomable questions at the reader's feet. The fact that Out of Shadows is built on the foundation of debut author Jason Wallace's own experiences in a post-civil war Zimbabwe boarding school makes the book all the more disturbing.

And this is a good thing. A great thing. Because Jason Wallace has created a powerful and important story here about a very specific country and its very specific and significant problems - a story that ultimately transcends that specificity and resonates with many people's hearts in all kinds of landscapes.

The history is critical to understand though; Out of Shadows begins in 1983, a few years after the civil war in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), and Robert Mugabe is Prime Minister. Life as ...