Bird of Sorrow

Birds of Sorrow is set in 1990s Zambia, against the backdrop of a failed military coup, election unrest and economic crisis. When eleven-year-old Chimuka's father unexpectedly dies, it becomes clear that their seemingly ordinary family is full of secrets that... are not usually discussed even among adults. Relatives on the husband's side turn away from the mother and children. Although she tries to stay afloat, after some time she makes a fateful decision that forces Chimuka and her brother Ali to seek salvation in the darkest streets of Lusaka. They will have to learn to survive in a dangerous world where cruelty and violence reign. It is both a tragic family story and a national portrait of Zambia at a time when the country turned its back on generations of its children.