The Drunken Mask

A dissection of corruption and desperation, The Orchid-Eaters chronicles the 2006 parliamentary elections in Zambia's remote district of Mufumbwe, where rapidly deploying westernized "development" creates an unusual synthesis of tradition and change, technology and magic. The election's incumbent, Malasha, is a notorious witch. The lunatic reincarnation and child of an Angolan-backed revolutionary, Malasha is both a cause and an effect of his own nation's continued suffering. Observing and burdened by the chaotic politics of the district is Clovis, an American aquaculture volunteer and former self-mutilator, whose obsessions with a dead ex-girlfriend lead him towards an uncannily similar Namibian lover. As Mufumbwe's political situation turns into a carnival of bribery and battery, witchcraft and nonsense, Clovis' notions of self and purpose complete an unavoidable process of erosion, and the illusoriness of his emotions and environment becomes tragically evident.