Novel
China manenji hachifambisi
Not translated into English
M. A. Hamutyinei · 1981
Synopsis
The title is a proverb, which the author himself translated: a mystery takes a long time to unfold. According to custom, Chemedzai, a country girl, has been promised to Morris. Won over by city life in Salisbury, the young man repudiates her against his father's wishes and marries Sabina, a two-faced woman. The novel follows Chemedzai to the city, into a world of coldness and deceit where families fall apart and the signs of misfortune slowly pile up, all in a language rich in Shona idioms.
Context
The novel appeared in 1981 in Gweru, published by Mambo Press, one hundred and twenty-eight pages. Its title comes from a proverb according to which crises are announced by small signs that accumulate. It sets Shona tradition against urban modernity, and its language now makes it a book for study: the Zimbabwean press picks out its idioms one by one, twenty or more, to explain their meaning.
Who it is for
In Shona, with no translation, a short novel. The figurative language, made of idioms, matters as much as the plot.
Prizes and reception
Regarded by the Zimbabwean press as a model of the Shona language, whose idioms are the subject of annotated surveys.
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