In her debut novel The Lions’ Den, Iris Mwanza invites readers to Zambia in the 1990s where a rookie lawyer defends a man who is accused of offenses against nature. Throughout the story, themes of corruption, power, and humanity rise to the surface as Mwanza follows the strong main character fighting against the odds.
Debutiful is proud to give readers a first look at The Lions’ Den‘s cover that subtly and softly invite readers into. See the cover below as well get a behind-the-scenes look at how the cover came to be with a short Q&A with Iris Mwanza.
While writing the book, did you have any ideas for what you wanted the cover to look like?
The themes of gender identity, vulnerability and struggle are central to the story, so I had proposed a strong, angular face with eyes that reflected both sadness and defiance. I wanted no signifiers of gender so that it could be a portrait of either of the two protagonists of the story, Willbess or Grace. I even had an artist in mind, Starry Mwale, whose portraits are incredibly powerful and arresting.
Can you explain what the design process was like once you started working with your team at Graydon House and Canongate?
I had discussed my idea with my British editor Ellah Wakatama who explained in her elegant but clear way that a book cover has to be more, and do more than what I had proposed, and that her expert team would develop one. I’ve heard too many authors complain about covers that they hated but what came back was perfect—I loved it immediately. I felt they honored my idea of having Grace or Willbess (you decide after you’ve read the book) on the cover, but it has dimensions and bold colors that made this cover so much better than I had imagined. The result was so powerful that my US editor Sara Rodgers at Graydon House, who had been on their own design track, agreed to use the cover as well.
What was it like seeing your finalized cover for the first time?
I was compelled to tell the story of the most vulnerable people and felt a heavy responsibility to do a good job, so this book has been a labor of love for nine years. Seeing the cover made it finally feel real; my hopes and dreams for my characters’ stories to be told had come true. It was a very emotional moment, and as a debut author, especially so.
How does the cover work to convey what the contents of the story are?
Grace is a young, inexperienced lawyer defending Willbess who has been charged with crimes against the order of nature—the Penal Code criminalizing gay sex in Zambia, where the story is set. These two characters are brave but vulnerable and the mix of bold and soft colors conveys this well. That most of the face is hidden adds mystery, which is certainly a large element in the story, and the little we can see, particularly the one eye, has that sad but defiant look that I had originally proposed. Is it Grace, or is it Willbess? I’ve seen the full portrait, so I know, but I’ll never tell.