This Mournable Body: Shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize

Description

'As natural as the grass grows.' - Chinua Achebe '[Dangarembga] is a wonderful creator of character.' - Doris Lessing '[A] Masterpiece.' - New York Times 'Searing and enlightening.' Sefi Atta, author of Everything Good Will Come In this tense and psychologically charged novel, Tsitsi Dangarembga channels the hope and potential of one young girl and a fledgling nation to lead us on a journey to discover where lives go after hope has departed. Here we meet Tambudzai, living in a run-down youth hostel in downtown Harare and anxious about her prospects after leaving a stagnant job. At every turn in her attempt to make a life for herself, she is faced with a fresh humiliation, until the painful contrast between the future she imagined and her daily reality ultimately drives her to a breaking point.

Tsitsi Dangarembga is the author of two previous novels, including Nervous Conditions, winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. She is also a filmmaker, playwright, and the director of the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa Trust. She lives in Harare, Zimbabwe.