This Mournable Body - Reading Guide
Background, reviews and themed reading ideas for Tsitsi Dangarembga’s tense and psychologically charged novel
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2020. 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. 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…
Tsitsi Dangarembga
About the Author
Tsitsi Dangarembga is a Zimbabwean novelist. She is the author of Nervous Conditions, This Book of Not and This Mournable Body.Sara Collins on Tsitsi Dangarembga's This Mournable Body
Actor Thandiwe Newton reads from This Mournable Body
Actor Thandiwe Newton performs a reading from 2020 Booker Prize-shortlisted author Tsitsi Dangarembga’s book, This Mournable Body.
This was originally streamed during The Booker Prize 2020 winner ceremony.
The characters and the general world were with me the whole time, but I had to find the head space to sit down and do it
