Mark Fine

When first speaking to author Mark Fine, one is struck by his accent. His voice is measured, and spoken with the properness of a long suffering boarding school inmate. Indeed, from age eight until seventeen Mark lived several hundred miles away from his Johannesburg home, near the coastal city of Durban. Boarding school prepared him well for his tour of duty in South Africa’s Navy Signal Corp. There he learned Morse code and touch-typing. The latter "military skill" was the first step toward becoming an author.

In the process of painting with words his own backyard, Mark Fine has been brave like William Faulkner in his journey of truth telling – he has simply done it with a much different kind of Southern accent. Fine has created a world in The Zebra Affaire that tells the truth of his home via the freedom fiction provides, and in seeing where South Africa has been – whether it is in choosing to follow the rules regardless of how nonsensical or cruel they might be, or to challenge the system, we may see a piece of ourselves as well. He puts human faces and hearts into his pages, and as we follow their loves, trials, and conflicts, we find this incredible story of the human condition as it endures some of the most unspeakable horrors.