The description on the back cover of the book - "the story of an African tragedy" essentially sums up the thrust of the book, especially when coupled with an explanation of the title - the long fields is a translation of the Shona name for Mugabe's secret prison camps. One focus is the detention in 1983 of Air Force Officers - and a note that, because they were white, the mass media was more interested in them than the thousands of Africans who did not have the chance to get out, even if now the Zimbabwe Diaspora is in the millions -