Book excerpt: The Caruso of Colleen Bawn and Other Short Writings is a collection of short stories and poems from the Zimbabwean author John Eppel. The pieces range from poetry evocative of the sights, sounds and smells of the Zimbabwean bush and suburbia to bitingly satirical prose about present day Zimbabwe. Eppel has proved himself in both fields of writing, being awarded the M-Net Prize for fiction and the Ingrid Jonker Prize for poetry.