Description

‘One of African literature’s most fascinating and unorthodox figures’ Brian Chikwava

‘When all else fails, don’t take it in silence: scream like hell, scream like Jericho was tumbling down, serenaded by a brace of trombones, scream’

Dambudzo Marechera burst onto the literary scene in 1978 with this vivid roar of a book exploring township life in pre-independence Zimbabwe. Rejecting what he saw as the narrow stereotypes of African literature, Marechera’s stories portrayed a world flashing with violence and anarchic humour, as his narrator expresses his desperate alienation – from his family, from his student friends, from Zimbabwe itself.

‘A writer who considered fiction a “form of combat”, complex, challenging – and uniquely potent’ Guardian

‘Like overhearing a scream’ Doris Lessing

‘A terrible beauty is born out of the urgency of his vision’ Angela Carter

Publisher Review

A profound, even if exaggeratedly self-aware writer, an instinctive nomad and bohemian in temperament, Marechera was a writer in constant quest for his real self -- Wole Soyinka A terrible beauty is born out of the urgency of his vision -- Angela Carter The metaphors are simultaneously so uncliched and so apt that he reinvigorates the language -- China Mieville on THE BOOKS THAT MADE ME Like overhearing a scream -- Doris Lessing A writer who considered fiction a 'form of combat', his work is complex, challenging - and uniquely potent -- Chris Power * The Guardian *