Longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize

'As natural as the grass grows.'
— Chinua Achebe

'[Dangarembga] is a wonderful creator of character.'
— Doris Lessing

'[A] Masterpiece.'
— New York Times

'Searing and enlightening.'
—  Sefi Atta, author of Everything Good Will Come

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.

Here we meet Tambudzai, living in a run-down youth hostel in downtown Harare and anxious about her prospects after leaving a stagnant job. 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.