Product Description

A reissue of this proclaimed novel, and Zimbabwean classic, that won both the Zimbabwe Book Publishers' Association first prize for literature, and the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa in 1989. The jury citation described the novel as 'a powerful, moving and ambitious novel, written with exceptional linguistic control, plumbing the depths of human suffering but having the wisdom to hope'. The story is the sensitive evocation of Marita, a farm- worker, whose only son joined the freedom fighters in Zimbabwe's war of liberation. The poetic language is rich in Shona idiom.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #541592 in Books
• Published on: 1988-01
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .34 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 116 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In his brief first novel about his native Zimbabwe, poet Hove presents a wrenching portrait of a people and a country in pain. Marita, whose only child has run away from home to become a terrorist, is devastated by her loss. Abandoning her embittered, ineffectual husband and her work in the fields of an abusive white farmer, she goes to the city to find news of her son, but the journey ends in her death at government hands. To pay for her trip, Marita had persuaded Chisaga, the farmer's cook, to steal money from his employer in return for sexual favors--never intending to keep the bargain. Chisaga, in turn, brutally rapes the young woman, Janifa, who would have been her son's bride, seeing Janifa as Marita's heir because she was given Marita's kitchen utensils ("the things of her womanhood"). Janifa then finds her own freedom in insanity. The unusual, elliptical voices of the characters reflect both Hove's poetic gifts and his attempt to convey a feeling of the native culture and language.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.