Vicious

In this spellbinding autobiography, Bevin Magama is unflinching in his account of his journey to adulthood. As a child, violence was the norm. As a young man, he joined the Zimbabwean military. He became an intelligence officer in Mugabe's regime, serving in clandestine operations in guerilla wars in the Congo while raising a family back home. He skilfully played this dangerous game until, one day, he was given orders that forced him to run. Set against the backdrop of Mugabe's rise to power and reign of terror, Vicious weaves together Magama's personal recollections with traditional African folklore.

"The contents of this book are true events that have shaped and moulded me into the man I am. Some names of people have been changed to protect their privacy. What drove me to write this book is a quest for peace after a life caught up in a vicious cycle of violence. I look back and realise I had the freedom to be my own judge and choose either forgiveness or hatred. In my world, I picked up a habit, an addiction to living dangerously and recklessly. Like a cocaine addict, I needed something that gave me kicks. A myriad of addictions came my way. From childhood, I loved the buzz I got from choosing punch-ups instead of handshakes. As I grew older, hormones running wild, I added womanising to my basket of addictions. Whilst flirting with self-destruction, I honed the art of seduction and deception. Throughout my own missteps in the twists and turns of a vicious life, one thing remained a constant - the art of storytelling. Evolving with each cycle, setting pace to the parameters of my life, the world of stories became my comfort zone to which I would escape to before returning to my addictions. This is my story..." Bevin Magama