Description

Winner of the Edward Stanford Prize for Fiction with a Sense of Place, 2019
Shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, 2019
Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, 2019
Longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, 2019
__________

‘Easily the best debut I’ve read this year, Tshuma’s novel is both hilarious and horrifying, filled with compassion, anger and despair. [Her] unreliable narrator [is] of the kind that deserves to be remembered up there with Humbert Humbert’ Kim Evans, Culturefly
__________

Bukhosi has gone missing.

His father, Abed, and his mother, Agnes, cling to the hope that he has run away, rather than been murdered by government thugs. Only the lodger seems to have any idea…

Zamani has lived in the spare room for years now. Quiet, polite, well-read and well-heeled, he’s almost part of the family – but almost isn’t quite good enough for Zamani. Cajoling, coaxing and coercing Abed and Agnes into revealing their sometimes tender, often brutal life stories, Zamani aims to steep himself in borrowed family history, so that he can fully inherit and inhabit its uncertain future.

Publisher Review

With luminous language, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma explores the treacherous terrain of colonization and decolonization, remembering and forgetting, and love and betrayal. The result is a gripping account of revolution and its aftermath, both for a country and for one man -- Viet Thanh Nguyen * Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'The Sympathizer' * House of Stone is the novel devastated Zimbabwe needed to have written. Now Novuyo Tshuma has written it. Bayethe to her scintillating talent! In the most original and fearless prose I've read in years, Tshuma's scheming narrator, Zamani, reveals the personal and political disintegration that was Zimbabwe's undoing. * Tsitsi Dangarembga * A truly original work of art... Utterly stunning. * author of 'The Hairdresser of Harare' * Enthralling... Audacious... A huge talent. * Brian Chikwava, author of 'Harare North' * Smart, original, feisty, brutal and gorgeous * Chika Unigwe, author of 'On Black Sisters' Street' * Are we on the cusp of a new age of African literature?... A courageous and probing work * Los Angeles Review of Books * Captivating * Emerald Street * Stunning * Bookriot * One of the most brilliant writers I know * Garth Greenwell, author of 'What Belongs to You' * Astounding * The Skinny * Hilarious and horrifying... Easily the best debut I've read this year * Culturefly * A towering and multi-layered gem. One of the greatest-ever novels about Zimbabwe * NoViolet Bulawayo, author of 'We Need New Names' * Epic... Beautiful * Panashe Chigumadzi, Guardian * Remarkable... Brilliant... Wise and demanding... Stunning... A remarkable feat... Ingenious * New York Times * An extraordinary achievement * Helon Habila, Guardian *