The Lions’ Den

Iris Mwanza’s debut novel, The Lions’ Den, is a riveting legal thriller set in the corrupt and homophobic political world of Zambia in the early 1990s. Grace, a defiant rookie lawyer, has finally been assigned her first client, Wilbess “Bessy” Mulenga, a 17-year-old queer dancer accused of illegally engaging in homosexual activities. But after a contentious jailhouse visit in which Grace discovers Bessy has been abused by the cops, the teen disappears without a trace. To save him, Grace must take on Zambia’s autocrat president with help from her boss, who is privately fighting his own health battles. Mwanza brings her experience as both a former lawyer and a native of Zambia to this provocative page-turner.

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