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World Book Club: NoViolet Bulawayo: We Need New Names

Discussion & Talk

Author NoViolet Bulowayo

02/04/2022 GMT

NoViolet Bulawayo: We Need New Names

BBC World Service - World Book Club, NoViolet Bulawayo: We Need New Names

Ten-year-old Darling from Zimbabwe has a choice: it's down or out

Ten-year-old Darling from Zimbabwe has a choice: it's down or out.

In the latest in World Book Club's season celebrating The Exuberance of Youth, Harriett Gilbert talks to Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo about her extraordinary novel, We Need New Names. 

A remarkable literary debut shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize We Need New Names is the unflinching, compelling story of a young girl's journey out of Zimbabwe and into America. A coming-of-age story, we follow a young girl named Darling, first as a 10-year-old in Zimbabwe with her friends, navigating a vibrant world of colour, political chaos and ultimately lethal danger. Later as a teenager emigrating to the Midwest United States, she hopes to find a better future living with her Aunt Fostalina in Michigan, only to discover that her options as a young immigrant are perilously few.

(Picture: NoViolet Bulawayo. Photo credit: Nye Lyn Tho.)

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