This Mournable Body
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020
‘Magnificent’ Guardian
‘A Masterpiece’ New York Times
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ONE OF THE BBC’S 100 WOMEN FOR 2020
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 BOOKER PRIZE
‘MAGNIFICENT.‘ Guardian ‘A MASTERPIECE.’ New York Times ‘MARVELLOUS.’ Sara Collins ‘EXTRAORDINARY.‘Madeleine Thien ‘HYPNOTIC.’ Daily Telegraph ‘SEARING.’ Sefi Atta ‘A MAVERICK VOICE.’ A Igoni Barrett ‘A MUST READ.’ Helon Habila ‘SUBTLE AND INTELLIGENT.’ TLS ‘A MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT.’ Literary Review ‘DAZZLING.’ FT
Here we meet Tambudzai, living in a youth hostel in downtown Harare after leaving a stagnant job. Proud, and yearning for success, Tambu attempts to make a new life for herself – but at every turn, she is faced with a fresh humiliation, until the contrast between the future she imagined and her daily reality ultimately drives her to a breaking point.
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.
This Mournable Body is a story of triumph, not despair.
Dangarembga gives us something rare: a sparkling anti-heroine we find ourselves rooting for.
Searing and enlightening. Tsitsi Dangarembga has delivered a highly anticipated, devastating portrayal of a woman who, like her country, endures a continuous path of destruction.
Finally, Dangarembga’s highly anticipated third novel is here. This Mournable Body is worth the wait, and Tsitsi Dangarembga has written it beautifully and compellingly. A must read for every lover of African fiction.
Heartbreaking and piercing … Tambudzai is an outstanding and memorable character … This is a smartly told novel of hard-earned bitterness and disillusionment.
A haunting evocation of the nature of small defeats. Only a writer steeped in Zimbabwean life – with her unflinching gaze fixed on the individual, and with a social vision that brooks no sentimentality – could have given us the fraught heroine of this starkly written novel. Tsitsi Dangarembga proves yet again that hers is a maverick voice.
Tsitsi Dangarembga is the author of three novels: Nervous Conditions, winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize; This Mournable Body, shortlisted for the Booker Prize and The Book of Not. She won the PEN Pinter Prize in 2021 and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. Dangarembga is also a filmmaker, playwright, and the director of the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress…
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