House of Stone: A Novel by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma

I'm trying not to bust my book budget, but this new release by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma is calling me and I'm loving the cover art. I'm going to have to order it soon! The book goodness being released over the next few months is amazing and will be sorely testing my book buying restraint!

Amazon

In the chronic turmoil of Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, Abednego and Agnes Mlambo’s teenage son, Bukhosi, has gone missing. Erudite, enigmatic Zamani, their lodger, seems to be their last, best hope for finding him. In his eagerness to help, Zamani is almost a part of the family— but almost isn’t nearly enough. Ingratiating himself to Mama Agnes and feeding alcoholic Abednego’s addiction, he is desperate to extract their life stories and make their family history his own. As the Mlambos pray for Bukhosi’s return, Zamani will stop at nothing to make a home for himself—and each of them must confront the past to find a place in the future.

Bursting with wit, seduction, and dark humor, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma’s unflinching epic about the fall of Rhodesia and the turbulent birth of Zimbabwe celebrates the persistence of the oppressed in a nation seeking its identity amid political chaos and violence. “The result is absolutely thrilling” (Garth Greenwell). 

About the Author

(Photo & Bio via Goodreads)

Novuyo Rosa Tshuma (born 28 January 1988) is a Zimbabwean writer. She is best known for her 2013 debut collection titled Shadows, a novella and short story book.

Tshuma was born and grew up in Bulawayo, a major city in Zimbabwe. She completed her high-school education at Girls' College, Bulawayo; where she studied Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and French for her A Levels. She is an alumna of the University of Witwatersrand, where she studied Economics and Finance. In 2009, her short story You in Paradise won the Intwasa Short Story Competition (now Yvonne Vera Award) for short fiction before she shot to recognition in 2013 following the release of her collection Shadows, which was published by Kwela Books. Shadows was nominated at the 2014 Etisalat Prize for Literature and also won the Herman Charles Bosman Prize. In 2014, Tshuma was enlisted as part of Africa39, a collaborative project by Hay Festival and Rainbow Book Club, which recognises top writers from Africa under the age of 40. A one-time Magtag Fellow at the MFA Creative Writing Programme at the University of Iowa, Tshuma is presently pursuing her PhD at the University of Houston's Literature & Creative Writing Programme