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bookshy

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The 'Meet' Series will be a chance for me to interview anyone I would love to meet that is involved with African literature. 

If I haven't said this already I absolutely love Zimbabwean literature. So I am extremely happy to announce the next person in the series is Tendai Huchu whose novel, The Hairdresser of Harare, I absolutely loved. Enjoy!!!


Can you tell us a little bit about yourself (where you’re from, what you do, interests and hobbies, any fun details)

Christ, that sounds like a bad chat up line. Here goes: I’m from a small mining town called Bindura in Zimbabwe. My interests are reading – a lot, playing chess, and walking. 

What was the first piece you ever wrote?

There is an awful abandoned novel I attempted aged 16 called The Enigma of Alfred. (Cringes)

What draws you to writing?

The freedom to express myself and explore ideas. Life is complex and we are fortunate to have fiction as a sort of Petri dish in which we can dissect life and study it over and over.  

What do you do when you are not writing?

I read.  


On The Hairdresser of Harare


I loved the setting of the salon, was there any particular reason why you chose to base the novel there? Also, why did you choose to have a male hairdresser as one of the central characters?

The salon acts as a microcosm of Zimbabwean society. In a society stratified by class, this is one of the few spaces people from all walks of life can interact organically. The male hairdresser Dumi acts as an intrinsic counterbalance to Vimbai, the narrator of the novel. This adds a layer of tension to the narrative.

I initially didn’t like Vimbai, although I began to warm up to her as the novel went on, but I really loved Dumi. Do you know what reader’s reactions to both characters have been? And I should ask, who was your favourite of the two (or is that like asking a parent to choose their favourite child)?

Reader’s usually fall for Dumi because Vimbai is rather rough around the edges. However as you go through the book and begin to understand more about Vimbai’s history, you begin to understand why she is the way she is. I don’t have a favourite between the two because they are a ying-yang, it is essential to have both of them in play for the novel to function.

The topic of homosexuality in Africa often leads to extreme reactions, and in Zimbabwe I know Robert Mugabe has been pretty vocal about his views on it. What drew you to tackle the subject in Hairdresser of Harare, and leading on from that, how has the book been received?

Kurt Vonnegurt, referring to his novel "Slaughterhouse 5", once remarked he was the only person who benefited from the Allied bombing of Dresden to the tune of $1 (one dollar) for every dead person in the city. I’m probably the only person who benefits from the stigmatization of gay Zimbabweans to the tune of about 1p (one penny) for every one of them.The book has been received as all books are in Zimbabwe – no one gives a damn, and so it should be. The novel is an alien art form, no different to yodelling or the opera there.

What was your favourite chapter (or part) to write and why?

Chapter 22 is a particularly explosive chapter that brings all the characters together in the same place, a trick Dostoevsky used to pull in work.

14:01 No Comments
This weekend while enjoying a rare sunny day (well warm for winter) on Broadway Market in Hackney, I found the most unique bookstore ever. And it was amazing!!!

Word on the Water, the London Bookbarge is a floating bookshop, which sells quality second hand books. And they had it all - classics, contemporary fiction, cults, comics, autobiographies, children's books, photography books, I even spotted records and some cool vintage stuff. They've even got a cute fireplace, a sofa and two cats for cat lovers out there. I found out afterwards that their location changes and it could be in Hackney one day, and Camden the next so I was extremely happy that it was there while I was in Hackney on Sunday. And of course I had to get something (I kinda have a problem where I can't go into a bookstore without buying a book), but was extremely surprised when I saw Andre Brink's A Dry White Season and so scooped it for a bargain. 

So if like me you love bookstores, and if you're in London or just visiting, definitely check it out. You can find out more about them on Twitter (for up-to-date locations) and Facebook. Enjoy!!!






10:21 3 Comments
I had no idea where to begin with As The Crow Flies by Véronique Tadjo as I have very mixed feelings towards it. I'm going to be honest and say I'm not even sure if I understood it, and wondered if I should give it a second reading. In the end I decided against that, and felt that I would probably try and read it again at a later stage in my life. Maybe then, it would make more sense.  Instead, I'm going to try and give my interpretation of it, and if anyone out there has read As The Crow Flies, I would love to know your thoughts. So here it goes.

"If you want to love
Do so
To the ends of the earth
With no shortcuts
Do so
As the crow flies

Indeed I too would have loved to write one of those serene stories with a beginning and an end. As you know only too well, it is never like that, though. Lives mingle, people tame one another and part. Destinies are lost"

And so it begins. Published in French in 1986 as A vol d'osieau and translated into English by WangÅ©i wa Goro in 2001, As The Crow Flies includes 92 vignettes. It doesn't tell one story, but many stories and like a crow, the book swoops in at different times and places in random individual lives, only for a brief moment, to capture some aspect of their lives and particularly loves. But we don't know their names, or really who they are.

There is one common story though, which comes and goes throughout - that of a woman in love, who had an affair with a married man whose wife then found out. He is no longer in her life and she is dealing with that love loss. Other than that, there are various stories told in the first, second and third person, which I felt was also in some way about love - love for someone, love for a country, love for a city, the presence or absence of love. It took me some time to get into it, and also to get into the pattern of what was going on. And as there was the one story of the woman who had the affair, it also took me a while to figure out when a new character came in and if it was her, or someone else.

I read this a couple of weeks ago and I'm still trying to decide how I feel about it. It wasn't a bad book, far from it, but I do think with As The Crow Flies you might either get it or not, and you might either love it or not.  It's also quite random, and if you're expecting structure, there isn't much of that in this. And I am torn, because while I (think) I might have got it, and actually appreciated the randomness of it, I am not sure that I loved it. Which is also why I feel I need a second reading. 

So I still have very mixed feelings towards As the Crow Flies and would really love to know what others who might have read this think of it, and also if I've actually understood this book properly.

3.75 out of 5
16:31 2 Comments
Just in time for Valentine's Day, is Precious Reuben's romance novel, Treasure of Mine.

Stella has just returned to Lagos after many years in Canada to introduce her new boyfriend, Nick, to her family. There's just one problem - he's white and her father is kinda-sorta racist. Like a lot of Nigerian fathers he believes his daughter should be with a Nigerian man and preferably one from the same ethnic group. Nick, is successful, wealthy, and handsome working in the diamond industry (his grandfather started his own jewellery company) in Canada, but his wealth doesn't impress Chief Ndube, Stella's father, who can't see past the colour of his skin.

Interracial relationships at the best of times can be difficult, and although Nick and Stella love each other, while in Nigeria a secret is revealed of an ultimate betrayal decades ago which makes Chief Ndube dislike Nick even more than he already does. This of course affects Nick and Stella's relationship. Added to that is Obike, Stella's childhood friend, who has been in love with her forever, and Nick's father who tests his allegiance with the family business. Will Nick and Stella survive her father's disdain for him? Will they choose their family, and their family's business, over their love? Or will Obike finally get Stella - the love of his life?

I don't generally tend to read romance novels, and I might have said it a while back that Myne Whitman's A Heart to Mend was my first foray into the genre and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I found Treasure of Mine easy to read and I did enjoy the fact that it was about an interracial couple. Also Chief Ndube's reaction to Nick, probably isn't dissimilar to the way a Nigerian father might react to his child bringing home someone of a different race.  I did wonder how her father would have reacted if she not only brought home a Canadian, but also one who wasn't wealthy. While I did enjoy reading it, and I did wonder as I kept on reading who she would end up with, I have to say there were way too many coincidences for my liking.

If romance is your genre of choice, and you want to find out what happens between Nick, Stella and Obike,Treasure of Mine will be available from February 14. I'd also like to say a big thank you to Precious Reuben for sending me a copy to read.

3 out of 5 stars.
12:31 No Comments
"In Ghana, if you come into the world a she, acquire the habit of praying. And master it. Because you will need it, desperately, as old age pursues you, and Mother Nature’s hand approaches you with a wry smile ... to daub you with wrinkles" (p.3).

It may be only 107 pages, but there's a handful of quotes in The Housemaid by Ghanaian author Amma Darko that I could have drawn on. This is a powerful novella about the lives of women in contemporary Ghana. As summarised in the synopsis: 

"A dead baby and bloodstained clothes are discovered near a small village. Everyone is ready to comment on the likely story behind the abandoned infant. The men have one opinion, the women another. As the story rapidly unfolds it becomes clear that seven different women played their part in the drama".

And what a drama!!! The Housemaid is about these women lives, but it doesn't paint them as passive victims. Instead, these women are fierce, cunning and do what they need to do in order to survive. We not only see how the rich women in the story became wealthy, but we also see the elaborate plans of a female rural family trying to escape the poverty they are in. Other than that, we also get to see how different city life is from village life and the price women have to pay for living in the city. Young girls know that living in the city will lead to exploitation and uncertain job prospects, but it also beats life in the boring village:

"Life as a porter in Kumasi was not what a normal person would call living. It was survival. But Akua knew that, come the yam festival (back in the village), the adulation she would received in Kataso would make all her sweat and humiliation sweet.

Like her mates, Akua had no regular home. They all lived in unfinished buildings; when final completion work started, they moved out. Thanks to bribed of cash and sex, workers at the building sites regaularly tipped them on the next place available for occupation" (p.32)
I really enjoyed reading The Housemaid and there's so much more I could say, like the way mother-daughter relationships were portrayed, or how men really were just secondary characters in the novel. But I won't becasue this is definitely an entertaining novel, and one I would highly recommend, especially if you want to read about the lives of contemporary women in an African society.


4 out of 5 stars
14:28 1 Comments
... and so my love for Zimbabwean literature just keeps on growing.  I absolutely enjoyed reading Bryony Rheam's debut novel This September Sun, and would like to say a big thank you to Jane Morris from 'amaBooks for sending me a copy of this book to read.

Set mainly in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe,This September Sun tells the story of two women - Ellie who is just trying to make sense of her life, and her grandmother, Evelyn, whom she had a really close relationship with.

Growing up in post-Independent Zimbabwe, Ellie never quite fitted in and felt stifled in her hometown and just longed to escape.  In the hope that she would finally find what she was looking for, she moved to the UK for her undergraduate degree, only to find out that something was still missing. While Ellie is trying to make sense of her life, we get flashbacks to her childhood in Bulawayo, the times she spent with her grandmother, as well as glimpses into what it was like being white in pre- and post-independent Zimbabwe. Ellie's life was also filled with secrets - well her family, and especially her grandmother's. It's not until Evelyn is brutally murdered and Ellie discovers her grandmother's diaries and letters that she is able to piece together Evelyn's life. It is only then Ellie is finally able to answer the many questions that were left unanswered, and in a way start making sense of her life.

In This Septemebr Sun, Bryony Rheam goes back and forth in time (between 1940s and 2000s), to expertly weave two different women's accounts of their lives and paint possibly one of the most beautiful stories I have read in a while. Reading Evelyn's story and her life, I felt like I had found someone's diaries and  letters. And I think I loved this book because it felt so real - the characters, the setting, their lives. At the end of the day we are all human beings with flaws. We laugh, we cry, we make mistakes, we do silly things, and we can all be annoying. Even more than that, I have never resonated more with a character than I did with Ellie- there were elements of her, which in a strange way mirrored me. And probably added to why the characters and the novel felt so real.  

This September Sun won the Best First Book Award at the 2010 Zimbabwe International Book Fair, and I can see why. Reading novels like this is what makes me love not just African literature, but really literature in general. I can only hope that more people get the chance to read this beautiful story.
5 out of 5 stars
13:11 1 Comments
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About me

Founded in 2011, bookshy represents two things: the young me who was so shy I escaped through books, and the older me whose shelf is always one book shy of being full.

bookshy is a space where I celebrate, promote and recognise contemporary African literature - although sometimes I go back in time to commemorate the greats. It is about the books I love, the books I have read and the books that I am dying to read.

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      • Meet ... Tendai Huchu
      • Boats, Books ... and Sun: The Floating Bookshop
      • Book Review: Véronique Tadjo's "As The Crow Flies"...
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