African Novelist gets selected for Britain’s Booker Prize

Zimbabwean novelist, NoViolet Bulawayo has been selected for the prestigious literary awards ‘Britain’s Booker Prize’.

In describing ‘Glory’,- her latest work shortlisted for the award- the judges of Britain’s Booker Prize said “this political satire goes beyond Zimbabwe and could relate to nations with despotic regimes around the world. It is also a book about feminism and power sharing.”

‘Glory’ is set in a kingdom called Jidada, The tropes Bulawayo makes fun of are recognisable and familiar.

Bulawayo herself has written that while Zimbabwe inspired her book, she saw it as “my humble contribution” to the collective struggles of “resistance movements across the world challenging different forms of oppression…”

The other books shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize are: The Trees by Percival Everett; Treacle Walker by Alan Garner; The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka; Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan; and Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout.

The winner will be announced in London on October 17.

NoViolet Bulawayo is the pen name of Elizabeth Zandile Tshele, a Zimbabwean author and Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. In 2012, the National Book Foundation named her a “5 under 35” honoree. Bulawayo was cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2014.

All Africa/S.S/T.E