Please Do Not Disturb

The nation of Bwalo in the heart of colonial Africa is approaching its glorious day of independence and celebration its king, The Big Day. Please Do Not Disturb puts us in the mind of five of its characters in the days leading up to The Big Day and is set in Bwalo under the great King Tafumo’s rule.

Charlie is a curious child born to parents from the UK but raised under the dictatorship, and loyalty to Tafumo is all he knows. Sean the Irishman is a struggling writer working as a teacher. Josef works in Tafumo’s government and at one time was his right-hand man. Hope is the King’s nurse and caretaker as well as Josef’s ex-wife, and, lastly, Jack is an outsider and petty criminal hired for a big smuggling job that could affect everyone.

In this enticing political novel about a corrupt government, Robert Glancy connects the narratives of all five people, which eventually line up and converge on The Big Day. It’s a novel that inspects life under dictatorial rule but also what power can do to a person as they let themselves get consumed by it.