Thrilling, heartbreaking, and, at times, absurdly funny, The Last
Resort is a remarkable true story about one family in a country under
siege and a testament to the love, perseverance, and resilience of the
human spirit.
Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Douglas Rogers is the son of white farmers
living through that country's long and tense transition from
postcolonial rule. He escaped the dull future mapped out for him by his
parents for one of adventure and excitement in Europe and the United
States. But when Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe launched his violent
program to reclaim white-owned land and Rogers's parents were caught in
the cross fire, everything changed. Lyn and Ros, the owners of
Drifters-a famous game farm and backpacker lodge in the eastern
mountains that was one of the most popular budget resorts in the
country-found their home and resort under siege, their friends and
neighbors expelled, and their lives in danger. But instead of leaving,
as their son pleads with them to do, they haul out a shotgun and decide
to stay.
On returning to the country of his birth, Rogers finds his once orderly
and progressive home transformed into something resembling a Marx
Brothers romp crossed with Heart of Darkness pot has supplanted maize
in the fields; hookers have replaced college kids as guests; and
soldiers, spies, and teenage diamond dealers guzzle beer at the bar.
And yet, in spite of it all, Rogers's parents-with the help of friends,
farmworkers, lodge guests, and residents-among them black political
dissidents and white refugee farmers-continue to hold on. But can they
survive to the end?
In the midst of a nation stuck between its stubborn past and an
impatient future, Rogers soon begins to see his parents in a new light:
unbowed, with passions and purpose renewed, even heroic. And, in the
process, he learns that the "big story" he had relentlessly pursued his
entire adult life as a roving journalist and travel writer was actually
happening in his own backyard.
Evoking elements of The Tender Bar and Absurdistan, The Last Resort
is an inspiring, coming-of-age tale about home, love, hope,
responsibility, and redemption. An edgy, roller-coaster adventure, it is
also a deeply moving story about how to survive a corrupt Third World
dictatorship with a little innovation, humor, bribery, and brothel
management.
