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// Patrick Neate

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Jerusalem

Patrick Neate’s satirical new novel Jerusalem explores the fractured notions of identity and authenticity in the aftermath of British colonialism in Africa.

Over the past decade, hip hop loving south Londoner, Patrick Neate, has notched up a brace of awards for a diverse but compelling stack of novels. It is appropriate that he is the driving force behind this city’s premier story telling salon Book Slam - as story telling is indeed his business. His latest novel, Jerusalem, takes us from this sceptered isle back to where his writing career took off - the fictional Republic Of Zambawi - the land of the Great Chief Tuloko. Yes, there are parallels with Zimbabwe but as this story unravels around Aids and embargos, corruption and coup d’etats, politicians and political prisoners, disillusion and fear, the author cleverly spins a web of stories over different passages of time. England’s colonial past materialises via the partly destroyed notebooks of a soldier of the Queen, crippled in the Boer war and in search of an elusive Albion. While he seeks out West Country Mummers and Morris men, an urban entrepreneur/visionary called ‘Tuppence’ leaves his Shoreditch HQ and goes off to the blighted wastelands of industrial Essex in search of Nobody, the elusive voice behind an MP3 of William Blake’s hymn Jerusalem. At the heart of this story is Prisoner 118. He is a zakulu - a celebrated Zambawi spirit medium called Musa Musa who shares a high security prison cell with two rats he has befriended, nurses a strangely persistent festering foot and dreams of a musungu (and it’s not Jim). Jerusalem is a thought provoking, modern tale with subtle twists of fate that had this reader gripped from beginning to end.

Jerusalem by Patrick Neate is published by Penguin
Book Slam, London’s literary nightclub, hosts monthly events: www.bookslam.com

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// ALL PATRICK NEATE'S REVIEWS


Jerusalem
16/12/2009






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// CONTACT

Patrick Neate's Website




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