Award -winning author Petinah Gappah imports own books to avoid exorbitant prices

Award-winning author and lawyer Petinah Gappah, has resorted to importing her own books after being frustrated by the exorbitant prices on the local market.  Gappah’s books are published outside the country.  The author has taken this unusual step in order to allow the people who inspired her to buy the books.

Sp0eaking to Newsday Gappah said:

It felt absolutely wrong to me that the people from the place from which I get my inspiration could not actually buy the book. So I thought maybe economies of scale would work, and I tried to find a distributor who was willing to make low profits on high volumes.

…I paid VAT [value-added tax] and all taxes upfront. I am able to support booksellers like Alois at Avondale Books, and individual sellers in the townships.

I have no desire to profit from this at all. I want only to cover the costs of bringing the books in, and to make up my royalty, which I had to give up to benefit from a discount.

Are you a Civil Servant or Pensioner in Zimbabwe?

Get a smartphone 📱 on Zero Deposit. 24 hours to process.

Click here to apply

The books are available at

• Alois Books at Avondale flea market
• Beauty Box of Ballantyne Park
• Blackstone Books
• Bond Street Shops (Mt Pleasant)
• Blackstone Books (Sam Levy’s Village, Borrowdale)
• Harare City Library
• Kiki’s Gallery (Umwinsidale)
•  Mustard Seed Africa (Mt Pleasant)
• National Gallery Bookshop
• Weaver Press (Emerald Hill)

More: Newsday