This Mournable Body [Nervous Conditions #3]

Tsitsi Dangarembga’s searing novel about the obstacles faced by the women of Zimbabwe asks one question: where do lives go when all hope has departed?

This Mournable Body continues the story of Tambudzai, the protagonist of Tsitsi Dangarembga’s acclaimed first novel, Nervous Conditions, examining how the hope & potential of a young girl & a fledgling nation can sour over time & become a bitter & floundering struggle for survival. After leaving a dead-end job, Tambudzai finds herself living in a run-down youth hostel in downtown Harare. At every turn, she is faced with a fresh humiliation. As a last resort, she takes an ecotourism job that takes her back to her parents’ impoverished homestead. A homecoming that culminates in an act of betrayal that reveals just how toxic the combination of colonialism & capitalism can be.

‘This Mournable Body drew an immediate reaction like a sharp intake of breath from all of us on the panel. The breakdown of the protagonist & the breakdown of a country are inextricably linked in this arresting novel from a mercurial writer.’  -  2020 Booker Prize Judges

Tsitsi Dangarembga is a Zimbabwean novelist. She is the author of Nervous Conditions, This Book of Not, & This Mournable Body.