Now Is the Time for Running

Michael Williams

 

Synopsis

Just down the road from their families, Deo and his friends play soccer in the dusty fields of Zimbabwe, cheered on by Deo's older brother, Innocent. It is a day like any other until the soldiers arrive and Deo and Innocent are forced to run for their lives, fleeing the wreckage of their village for the distant promise of safe haven in South Africa. Along the way, they face the prejudice and poverty that greet refugees everywhere, but eventually Deo finds hope, joining dozens of other homeless, displaced teens on the World Cup Street Soccer team--a possible ticket out of extreme hardship to a new life.

Review

A harrowing tale of modern Zimbabwe... gripping, suspenseful and deeply compassionate. ― Kirkus

Author

Michael Williams is a writer of plays, musicals, operas, and novels, and is the Managing Director of Cape Town Opera in South Africa. He finds writing fiction to be the perfect antidote to the drama of keeping an opera company alive in Africa.