This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga

This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga

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This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 BOOKER PRIZE

A searing novel about the obstacles facing women in Zimbabwe, by one of the country's most notable authors


Anxious about her prospects after leaving a stagnant job, Tambudzai finds herself living in a run-down youth hostel in downtown Harare. For reasons that include her grim financial prospects and her age, she moves to a widow's boarding house and eventually finds work as a biology teacher. But 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.

In This Mournable Body, Tsitsi Dangarembga returns to the protagonist of her acclaimed first novel, Nervous Conditions, to examine how the hope and potential of a young girl and a fledgling nation can sour over time and become a bitter and floundering struggle for survival. As a last resort, Tambudzai takes an ecotourism job that forces her to return to her parents' impoverished homestead. It is this homecoming, in Dangarembga's tense and psychologically charged novel, that culminates in an act of betrayal, revealing just how toxic the combination of colonialism and capitalism can be.

Dangarembga, Tsiti: - Tsitsi Dangarembga was born and brought up in Zimbabwe. She studied medicine and psychology before turning to writing full-time and becoming the first Black woman in Zimbabwe to publish a novel in English. Nervous Conditions was the recipient of the 1989 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Fiction, the book has become a modern classic. Nervous Conditions was also chosen as one of the 'Top Ten Books of Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century' by a Pan African Initiative in 2002. Dangarembga's sequel to Nervous Conditions entitled The Book of Not was published in 2006 by Ayebia. In addition, she has written a play entitled She No Longer Weeps. Having studied at the German Film and Television Academy, Dangarembga now also works as a scriptwriter, consultant and film director. She is the founder of International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF). She is currently working on the third novel in the trilogy and lives in Zimbabwe.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9781555978129
ISBN 10 1555978126
Title This Mournable Body
Author Tsitsi Dangarembga
Series Nervous Conditions Ser
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Graywolf Press,U.S.
Year published 2018-08-07
Number of pages 304
Prizes Short-listed for Man Booker Prize (Novel) 2020
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.