This Mournable Body

Tsitsi Dangarembga

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020

‘Magnificent’ Guardian
‘A Masterpiece’ New York Times

Format
Ebook
ISBN
9780571355532
Date Published
14.01.2020
Delivery
All orders are sent via Royal Mail and are tracked: choose from standard or premium delivery.
Summary


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.

Critic Reviews

This Mournable Body is a story of triumph, not despair.

New York Times
Critic Reviews

Dangarembga gives us something rare: a sparkling anti-heroine we find ourselves rooting for.

The Washington Post
Critic Reviews

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.

Sefi Atta, author of EVERYTHING GOOD WILL COME
Critic Reviews

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.

Helon Habila
Critic Reviews

Heartbreaking and piercing … Tambudzai is an outstanding and memorable character … This is a smartly told novel of hard-earned bitterness and disillusionment.

Publishers Weekly
Critic Reviews

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.

A Igoni Barrett
TsitsiDangarembga

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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Tsitsi photograph credit Hannah Mentz (1)