What makes people believe in vaccination against bullets, or in cannibalistic hitmen who cruise the night skies on bat-back? Nick Middleton travelled to Mozambique to find out. This book assesses the state of the nation at a critical juncture, reflecting two trips, before and after the peace accord of 1992, which put an end to a long and bitter civil war. Despite the ravages of a turbulent history, he found a resilient country full of integrity and good nature. This is a personal and political travel book which shines a light on a little understood part of southern Africa, a country where the West has run into the heart of black Africa: a country where the Kalashnikov met the zombie cucumber.

'His tenaciously well-informed prose transcends traveloguery'

Observer