This Mournable Body

'A story of triumph.' New York Times
'Gives us something rare: a sparkling anti-heroine we find ourselves rooting for.' Washington Post
'Brilliantly dramatises the tragic ironies of life in a country where keeping yourself afloat may mean swallowing your pride.' New Yorker
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 examines 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.

Tsitsi Dangarembga is the author of two previous novels, including Nervous Conditions, winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. She is also a filmmaker, playwright, and the director of the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa Trust. She lives in Harare, Zimbabwe.