The Last Resort: A Memoir of Mischief and Mayhem on a Family Farm in Africa

This book will get your adrenaline flowing. I received it as a Christmas gift, and I figured it would be light reading somewhere down the line. On the day after Christmas, I opened the book to read a few pages, and continued reading until I finished it! It was a cliffhanger, and all true, and I had to know what happened next. The innocent frog on the cover does not give any indication of what you're in for once you start . I traveled through Zimbabwe on separate trips years ago, once by train and the second time by hitchhiking. It is a beautiful country with great people, and it has been difficult to watch the country deteriorate into a quagmire. So it was really an uplifting experience to see how the author's parents and other people have survived draconian measures. It is really a testament to the human spirit. You will thoroughly enjoy this book. Within a few pages, you will be drawn in and you will find it hard to stop. You'll feel that you are right there with the Rogers family and their lodge. It's truly a fascinating story.

Douglas Rogers has written a brilliant and compelling book, The Last Resort, about life in Zimbabwe in the 21st Century. His story is a personal memoir and love story of the land, the people, and most importantly, his stalwart parents, Lyn and Rosalind. One wonders why Rogers' parents or any white farmers have remained in Zimbabwe since most of the 4,500 white farmers have been forced off their farms through land invasions or the "resettlement program." The Rogers' and most white farmers in Zimbabwe are descendants of Afrikaners or Britons who came to Africa as long as 350 years ago, and settled in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) or migrated from South Africa. Since being forced off their land in the past decade, most whites have left and moved to South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, or wherever someone will take them in. But his parents choose to stay on their game farm in a river valley outside the city of Mutare. They are determined to keep hold of their home and once popular backpacker lodge resort, although no tourists come through anymore. As the drama unfolds in the warp and woof of his parents' world, Rogers reveals how life has changed in Zimbabwe and how the Last Resort has become a microcosm of the tragedy in Zimbabwe. He has the eye of a journalist and portrays life for Zimbabweans (black and white) with a wry wit since the thirty year rule of President Robert Mugabe where AIDS has spread to about 20% of the population, 80% of the population is unemployed, a loaf of bread costs Z$1 million dollars, and there is a black market for everything. He manages to find humor in the daily grind and especially with the albino frog who visits and may be an omen. As he weaves his story, one realizes that it is not only the white Zimbabweans who are struggling, but also blacks who are in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) (about 50% of the population). Rogers reveals his parents' passion for their country and their desire to live out their lives in their homeland while most of their friends have given up the fight and left. Rogers admits that while writing their story he is "now filled with admiration for my parents. What they had built out of virgin bush fifteen years ago had become central to the events of the country." Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Africa, has become the poorest country, lacking food or staples to feed its population as the land has gone fallow. The reader moves from awe and disbelief, to admiration for Lyn and Rosalind in their struggle to survive on this mountain top. The "Last Resort" where they live, includes 12 cottages and a lodge called "Drifters," and has become a beehive of activity including a brothel, a drug spot, a political center, and even a connection to the blood diamonds. The Rogers, in their seventies now, are fighting to stay on as they watch from their front lawn the drama of the land invasions and political intrigue in the valley below. Their home has "become a stage set, a metaphor of the state of

I was able to read an advanced copy and I really enjoyed it. It is an easy read and a remarkable story of the author's family in Zimbabwe. His family lineage goes back 300 years on the African Continent. His family is one of the last white land owners in Zimbabwe and the story is of his immediate family living through the transitions from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe to the last 10 years of "Land Reform". His parents ran a well regarded backpacker lodge in the eastern mountains of Zimbabwe all through the 1990's. In the last decade, despite inflation in the million percent range, as well as brutal and murderous land seizures, his parents are still miraculously on "their" land. It is their LAST RESORT! Douglas Rogers is quite the raconteur. His writing makes you ache to visit and see for your self the raw and natural beauty that is Zimbabwe. I recommend this book.

Buy Douglas' "bleddy book." He paints breath-taking pictures. I didn't know where Mutare was. I thought it was the old name for Umtata (South Africa). Just reading the first few pages reminded me of my travels through Zimbabwe in 1960 on the Great North Road. Douglas' ability to describe the smells, sounds, ugliness and extraordinary beauty of that part of Africa is special. The meaningful values developed from his parents and from growing up in Southern Africa is palpable. And I have only read the first chapter of Douglas' truly inspirational book.