"The most intimate portrait yet produced of Zimbabwe"s clever yet brutal leader." -The Economist With plunging life expectancy, soaring inflation, and unemployment, repression, and starvation fueling a mass exodus, Zimbabwe is a nation in crisis. Its president, Robert Mugabe-once lauded for his heroics as a guerilla leader who fought against white-minority rule in the 1960s- is now seen as the man who ruined the country and cast shame on the African contiÂnent. Beginning with a dinner shared with Mugabe the freedom fightÂer and ending in a searching interview with Mugabe as Zimbabwe"s president more than thirty years later, Heidi Holland"s incisive and timely investigation charts Mugabe"s gradual self- destruction and probes the mystery of Africa"s loyalty to one of its worst dictators.