of Shadows took one year and six months to complete. While he attended a boarding school in Zimbabwe not too long after the Rhodesian Bush War/Zimbabwean War of Liberation ended, Jason Wallace wanted to write a story of what he had seen or experienced. The political scene in Zimbabwe was declining and troubled. This inspired Jason Wallace, and he began writing fictional stories of what he was encountering. Though the characters in the novel are not real, they served to demonstrate the attitudes or personalities "a very few people" were portraying. Wallace notes that he "came up with the idea of "What if...?" and took it from there" when he was writing Out of Shadows. There may be many similar aspects that his story may share with real life but they are very general details, and there is nothing very specific. Out of Shadows is set Zimbabwe during the 1980s and is historically accurate due to the experiences Wallace shared in the novel. It is set after the war when Robert Mugabe has come to power offering hope, land and freedom to black Africans. It is the end of the Old Way and the start of a promising new era. For Robert Jacklin, it's all new: new continent, new country, new school. And very quickly he is forced to understand a new way of thinking, because for some of his classmates the sound of guns is still loud, and their battles rage on... white boys who want their old country back, not this new black African government. Boys like Ivan. Clever, cunning, wicked Ivan. For him, there is still one last battle to fight, and he's taking it right to the very top..." Wallace focused on several themes in the novel Out of Shadows such as bullying, racism, politics and morality. The book is cross-over novel, written for both adults and a younger audience of 13+ due to some difficult topics that are being dealt with. Encounters Jason Wallace's second novel, Encounters, was published on May 4, 2017 by Andersen Press. The novel is also set in Zimbabwe but is very different from Out of Shadows. It was inspired by true events in the 1990s. Personal life Wallace currently resides in South West London, England. Bibliography Out of Shadows (2010) Encounters (2017) Awards WINNER - Costa Children's Book of the Year 2010 - Costa Book Awards - "...a unanimous winner...