Zimbabwean author Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza has won the 2024 Island Prize for his thriller Freelance.

Created by South African author Karen Jennings, the Island Prize provides new writers in the continent with resources and support. The winner receives a cash award of £500, while the runners-up receive £300 and £200 respectively.

Kundizeza’s thriller is a story about the cost of corruption, unchecked power, and the struggles for power in complex political landscapes. 

 

Read the full synopsis below:

Freelance is a thriller set in 2019 in Zimbabwe. It follows Omar Warsame Mohamed, a Somali-American freelance investigative reporter from Minnesota. As a child, Omar fled civil war in Somalia and lived as a refugee in Zimbabwe alongside his friend Edgar Antonio. Now an established journalist, Omar receives a cryptic Facebook message from Edgar, who works as a truck driver for Rossiya Fert, a large Russian fertilizer company operating in Zimbabwe. Before Omar can meet with Edgar in Zimbabwe, he receives devastating news – Edgar has been found dead in an apparent suicide. A story about the human cost of corruption and unchecked power, and the struggle for justice in a complex political landscape

 

The runners-up for the 2023 Island Prize are previously shortlisted writers; Ruby Excel (Ghana) and Mali Kambandu (Zambia)

 

Congrats to Kundizeza on the well-deserved win!