We Need New Names
NoViolet Bulawayo, 2013
Little, Brown and Co.
296 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316230841
Summary
Shortlisted, 2013 Man Booker Prize
The unflinching and powerful story of a young girl's journey out of Zimbabwe and to America.
Darling is only ten years old, and yet she must navigate a fragile and violent world. In Zimbabwe, Darling and her friends steal guavas, try to get the baby out of young Chipo's belly, and grasp at memories of Before. Before their homes were destroyed by paramilitary policemen, before the school closed, before the fathers left for dangerous jobs abroad.
But Darling has a chance to escape: she has an aunt in America. She travels to this new land in search of America's famous abundance only to find that her options as an immigrant are perilously few.
NoViolet Bulawayo's debut calls to mind the great storytellers of displacement and arrival who have come before her—from Junot Diaz to Zadie Smith to J.M. Coetzee—while she tells a vivid, raw story all her own. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1981
• Where—Tsholotsho, Zimbabwe
• Education—B.A., M.A., Texas A&M; M.F.A., Cornell University
• Awards—Caine Prize for African Writing; National Book Awards
"5 Under 35" Award
• Currently—lives in California
NoViolet Bulawayo (pen name of Elizabeth Zandile Tshele) is a Zimbabwean author and Stegner Fellow at Stanford University (2012–2014).
NoBulawayo was born and raised in Zimbabwe and attended Njube High School and later Mzilikazi High School for her A levels. She began her college education in the US, studying at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in English from Texas A&M University-Commerce and Southern Methodist University respectively.
In 2010, she completed a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Cornell University, where her work was recognized with a Truman Capote Fellowship.
NoViolet's short story "Hitting Budapest" won the 2011 Caine Prize for African Writing. Her other work has been shortlisted for the 2009 SA PEN Studzinsi Award, and has appeared in Callaloo, The Boston Review, Newsweek, and The Warwick Review, as well as in anthologies in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and the UK.
Her 2013 novel entitled We Need New Names was shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize. This makes her the first black African woman and the first Zimbabwean to be shortlisted for that prize.
She has begun work on a memoir project. (Adapted from Wikipedia and the publisher Retrieved 10/29/2013.)
Book Reviews
[D]eeply felt and fiercely written…the voice Ms. Bulawayo has fashioned for her [narrator, Darling] is utterly distinctive—by turns unsparing and lyrical, unsentimental and poetic, spiky and meditative…Using her gift for pictorial language, Ms. Bulawayo gives us snapshots of Zimbabwe that have the indelible color and intensity of a folk art painting…Ms. Bulawayo gives us a sense of Darling's new life [in the United States] in staccato takes that show us both her immersion in and her alienation from American culture. We come to understand how stranded she often feels, uprooted from all the traditions and beliefs she grew up with, and at the same time detached from the hectic life of easy gratification in America.
Michiko Kakutani - New York Times
Bulawayo describes all this in brilliant language, alive and confident, often funny, strong in its ability to make Darling's African life immediate without resorting to the kind of preaching meant to remind Western readers that African stories are universal, our local characters globalized, our literature moving beyond the postcolonial into what the novelist Taiye Selasie has best characterized as Afropolitan…Bulawayo is clearly a gifted writer. She demonstrates a striking ability to capture the uneasiness that accompanies a newcomer's arrival in America, to illuminate how the reinvention of the self in a new place confronts the protective memory of the way things were back home.
Uzodinma Iweala - New York Times Book Review
[T]he first half of the book...is a remarkable piece of literature. Ten-year-old Darling is Virgil, leading us through Paradise, the shantytown where she and her friends...live and play.... Abruptly, Darling lands with her aunt in America.... [She] may not be worse off, but her life has not improved.... Bulawayo’s use of English is disarmingly fresh, her arrangement of words startling.
Publishers Weekly
As Bulawayo effortlessly captures the innate loneliness of those who trade the comfort of their own land for the opportunities of another, Darling emerges as the freshest voice yet to spring from the fertile imaginations of talented young writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Dinaw Mengestu, who explore the African diaspora in America. —Sally Bissell, Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Estero, FL
Library Journal
In Bulawayo’s engaging and often disturbing semiautobiographical first novel, 10-year-old Darling describes, with childlike candor and a penetrating grasp of language, first, her life in Zimbabwe during its so-called Lost Decade and then her life as a teenager in present-day America.... Ultimately what lingers is Bulawayo’s poignant insights into how a person decides what to embrace and what to surrender when adapting to a new culture in a new land. —Donna Chavez
Booklist
A loosely concatenated novel in which Darling, the main character and narrator of the story, moves from her traditional life in Zimbabwe to a much less traditional one in the States.... In America, Darling must put up with teasing that verges on abuse and is eager to return to Zimbabwe.... Bulawayo crafts a moving and open-eyed coming-of-age story.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. As the novel opens, we see that Darling is living in a close knit community of extended family members and friends. When she moves to Detroit, Michigan, she lives in a smaller family unit, and perhaps a more conventional one. Does living with fewer people in probably more middle class circumstances give Darling a more intimate family life? Or was her family life in Zimbabwe more supportive or affirming for her? What are the advantages of living in a more open community like the community Darling is born into in Zimbabwe, and is it possible for us to achieve that kind of family structure here in the U.S?
2. When Darling is living in America, she Skypes with Chipo, who tells her that she can't refer to Zimbabwe as her country anymore. Do you think this is a fair accusation? Does Darling owe anything to Zimbabwe? And is she still entitled to a sense of ownership over the place she left behind?
3. How do Bulawayo's descriptions of Zimbabwe diverge from other portrayals of Africa? In some of the tragic moments in the book—for example, when Darling and her friends try to remove the baby from Chipo's belly—there are unexpected moments of levity. Does Bulawayo's method of depicting tragedy make the harrowing elements resonate with you in an unexpected way? In recent years, elements of the media, such as video games and movies, have been taken to task for possibly desensitizing us to tragedy. Do you think that is true? What role does literature play in how we experience and understand global tragedy and other cultures? How does Darling's voice contribute to that picture for readers?
4. Despite living in poverty, a world away from American culture, we see through the lives of Darling and her friends that lots of American pop culture makes its way firmly into the imagination of these young people—from Beyonce to McDonald's to the television show ER. Did that surprise you? How do you see pop culture moving from the U.S. to Zimbabwe? How are Darling's ideas about American pop culture affirmed or challenged when she arrives in Detroit?
5. The scene in which the aid workers visit Darling's village gives insight into the sometimes dehumanizing impact of charity: "The man starts taking pictures with his big camera...they don't care that we are embarrassed by our dirt and torn clothing...we don't complain because we know that after the picture-taking comes the giving of gifts." How did this passage make you feel? If this scene were written from the point of view of the aid workers, how do you think it would be different? What role does our intention play when we contribute to charitable causes?
6. How do you think your country of residence affects the way you read and interpreted this novel?
7. The title of the book refers to the choice that many immigrants make to give their children names that, as Darling says, "make them belong in America." How important is a name? How much weight do names hold in your family or in your culture?
8. In what ways does America change Darling's personality? Is America the reason for this shift or is it Darling herself? Does your personality change depending on where you are or who you are with?
9. How would your reading experience have been different—and how might the power of Darling's message have been affected—if the novel hadn't been written in her voice? Are there places you think you would have understood more about the story? What did Darling's particular voice bring to this story that might not have been achieved another way? What role did her voice play in establishing the moments of humor and cultural insight in this story? The prose is also full of deliberate misspellings and phonetic language—like "destroyed" Michigan. What did those choices reveal to you about Darling's experiences?
10. Since the novel's publication, NoViolet Bulawayo—and other writers published around the same time, like Taiye Selasi who wrote Ghana Must Go and Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie who wrote Americanah—have fielded questions about being labeled as "African writers." Africa is a diverse and vast continent, and yet we oftentimes lump these writers together. Is that fair? When asked about the label, Bulawayo said, "For me, I always insist that I am an African writer because it's true; I am an African. I feel that even if I deny that label, my work will scream otherwise." She added that her aesthetics and themes were all inspired by Africa and its modes of storytelling, including the oral tradition. Do you agree, or disagree, with Bulawayo?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
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Ella's Paradise
Amanda Summerbell, 2013
CreateSpace
152 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781492860204
Summary
When Leigh Carrington’s uncle Jack, a well-known author at the peak of good health, mysteriously collapses, she inherits his stately Victorian hilltop home in sleepy Hallstead, Virginia. She packs up and moves in, but it isn’t long before Leigh suspects that something’s not quite right in the house they call “Ella’s Paradise.” Why have so many of its inhabitants died unexpectedly?
Who is leaving bouquets of fresh flowers in the ballroom? Could it really be the ghost of little Ella Mabry she hears giggling in the middle of the night? When a dark stranger with a story to tell helps Leigh make some sense of the bizarre goings-on, she is faced with a decision: Can she trust him? Or will she succumb to the danger lurking within her own walls? (From the author.)
Author Bio
• Birth—August 20, 1978
• Where—Fairfax, Virginia, USA
• Education—B.A., George Mason University
• Currently—lives in Charleston, West Virginia
Book Reviews
Sorry, this book has not yet been reviewed.
Discussion Questions
1. How did loss affect Leigh's life?
2. What presumed clues did Leigh's uncle leave for her to solve the mystery?
3. What clues were found throughout the book that led you to the ending?
4. Which characters were the most complex?
5. How appealing was the plot and was the book suspenseful? Did you have a hard time putting it down?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
The City Center (The New Agenda Series, 1)
Simone Pond, 2013
Ktown Waters
322 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780615889115
Summary
During the man-made apocalypse in the 21st century, a group of elites killed off a majority of the population. Only two groups of survivors remained––those selected to reside inside the Los Angeles City Center and the rebels, relegated to live on the Outside.
Centuries later, Ava Rhodes is one of five potential successors competing to become the next Queen of the City Center. A week prior to the final competitions she encounters Joseph, a rebel from the Outside, and discovers her utopian home is actually a prison and breeding facility aimed at designing the perfect human. She escapes with Joseph to the Outside world, sending the City Center’s leader, Chief Morray, into an obsessive pursuit for his property.
Along the journey, Ava falls in love with Joseph and discovers an even darker secret about the fate of her people. She must decide whether to stay with Joseph, or save her people from destruction. (From the publisher.)
This is the first book of The New Agenda series. The second is The New Agenda (2014), and Mainframe, the third, is due out in 2015.
Author Bio
• Birth—August 21, 1970
• Where—Washington, D.C., USA
• Education—B.A., University of Maryland, College Park
• Currently—Los Angeles, California
I grew up in a town just outside Washington D.C. On my 7th birthday I got a Hello Kitty diary and I've been 'journaling' ever since. Writing saved my life and got me through some tough times (and still does). I spent years scribbling notes and random thoughts, but after reading The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton the world of writing opened up. I was blown away that a woman could write so convincingly from a teenaged boy's perspective. I knew I had to become a writer.
I've written many essays, blogs and songs, but after a strange conversation with my husband about what cities might be like in the future, I decided to write a full-length novel about a supposed utopian city that's actually a prison.
As far as the boring technical information, I graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a BA in Communications and a minor in English. I moved out west a week after graduation and I've been working in advertising ever since––to pay the bills.
While I love writing about the future, I live in current day Los Angeles with my husband and our Boston Terrier. This is my first speculative fiction novel. I'm working on the second in the series—The New Agenda—that will launch sometime in 2014. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
(A few things people are saying about the book.)
Looking for a new page turner? My eyes are burning because I couldn't put it down. I skipped meals, sleep, yoga, I HAD to finish it. You can thank or hate on me later."
"You will whip through this book, it is a fast and easy read, and Ava and other characters are fully imagined and instantly enthralling. Can't wait for the next one (there HAS to be a next one, right?!?)"
"I just finished The City Center and I loved it. I started it on Sunday, brought it to work with me on Monday to read during my lunch hour and finished it Monday night. I was quickly caught up in the characters and had a hard time putting it down until I knew how everything played out. I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series!"
"You had me up reading much later than I wanted to stay up last night."
"A friend turned me on to this book, and I couldn't be happier she did. I usually take a long time to finish a book, but blew through The City Center in 2 days. Great story with really good writing. I highly recommend this book."
"Fantastic first book in what I hope is a long series. I thoroughly enjoyed this imaginative journey. Ms. Pond struck a great balance between story and character development. Can't wait for more!"
"The City Center got me thinking about all the great possibilities our future could hold for us, good and bad and that should be a true goal of the fiction writer. Well done Ms. Pond."
Discussion Questions
1. How do you think The City Center differs from other dystopian novels?
2. In The City Center, each Successor Candidate is working toward Graduation Day so they can become a member of Royal Court, yet they don't know what achieving that position fully entails. Is the author trying to say something here?
3. On the Outside, the people are so much more aware of who they are and connected with nature and God. The characters even quote Ecclesiastes. Does this inspire you or bother you? What are things you do to keep your hope alive?
4. Inside the city everything is dependent on technology, including the residents. They're all plugged into the mainframe. What do you think the author is saying about technology?
5. Chief Morray and his team of Planners design and manipulate DNA coding to create humans for specific needs and vocations. What do you think the author is saying about human rights?
6. The story looks at both sides of society—the "haves" and the "have nots." Who decides what is superior? Who decides what is right for the masses? Do you feel that society today (thoughts, ideas, food, purchases, career choices, place in society) is under attack?
7. Ava's journey is to seek the truth about her city, but along the way she discovers herself. Where do you see this transformation beginning to occur?
8. When Ava discovers the even darker secret about her people, were you surprised? What are your thoughts on that subject matter?
9. What are some of the books that have inspired you in the speculative fiction genre?
(Questions provided courtesy of the author.)
Cracking India
Bapsi Sidhwa, 2006
Milkweed Editions
296 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781571310484
Summary
Young Lenny is kept out of school because she suffers from polio, and so spends her days with Ayah, her beautiful nanny, visiting with the large group of admirers that Ayah draws. Thrilled with the attention that comes with her invalid status, Lenny manipulates the activities of courtship to better spoil herself.
It is in the company of these working class characters that Lenny learns about religious differences, comes to recognize religious intolerance, and provides a lense into the blossoming genocidal strife on the eve of Partition. As she matures, Lenny begins to identify the differences between the Hindus, Moslems, and Sikhs engaging in political arguments all around her.
As a Parsee, Lenny is separate from these groups and their conflicts, though they play a tremendous role in her life. The Ice-Candy-Man, a popsicle vendor and the title character in the British edition, initially the most aggressive of Ayah’s suitors, transforms several times over the course of the novel, symbolically representing the subcontinent's own transformations.
Sidhwa humanizes the violence and strife caused by religious intolerance by putting the innocence of a child, an outside narrator due to both her age and her ethnicity, on the line, caught in the crossfire of political unrest. The story depicts the planting of the seeds of religious intolerance and political violence that remains to this day in India and Pakistan, and much of the rest of the Middle East.
Cracking India provides a timely reminder that contemporary American rhetoric of the “War on Terror” and post-9/11 politics echoes eerily that which is recorded in this novel. Sidhwa personalizes the history of political unrest in South Asia and the Middle East, an issue as pertinent today as it was in 1980, when the novel was first published. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1938
• Raised—Lahore, Pakistan
• Education—Kinnaird College
• Awards—Bunting Fellowship; Sitara-i-Imtiaz; Lila Wallace-Reader's
Digest Writer's Award; Premio Mondello
• Currently—lives in Houston, Texas, USA
Born in Karachi, Pakistan and raised in Lahore, Bapsi Sidhwa has been lauded as “Pakistan’s finest English-language novelist.” Sidhwa is the author of four novels: The Bride, Crow Eaters, An American Brat, and Cracking India (Ice-Candy-Man), which was a New York Times Notable Book, nominated by the American Library Association as Notable Book, and won the Literature Prize in Germany in 1991, and was made into the award-winning film Earth by Indian director Deepa Mehta in 1999.
Sidhwa was the recipient the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Pakistan’s highest honor in the arts in 1991, and was inducted into the Zoroastrian Hall of Fame in 2000. She has been awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writer’s Award, and the Bunting Fellowship from Radcliffe, among other honors.
Her novels have been published abroad in India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Germany, Greece, and Italy. She has taught at several universities in the United States and the United Kingdom. Though she currently resides with her husband in Houston, Texas, Sidhwa travels often to Pakistan, seeking the inspiration of Lahore and working as an activist for women’s and minority rights. (From the publisher.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
Cracking India is a novel in which heartbreak coexists with slapstick, where awful jokes about forefathers and foreskins give way to lines of glowing beauty ("The moonlight settles like a layer of ashes over Lahore"). The author’s capacity for bringing an assortment of characters vividly to life is enviable.
New York Times Book Review
[Sidhwa] has told a sweet and amusing tale filled with the worst atrocities imaginable; she has concocted a girlishly romantic love story which is driven by the most militant feminism; above all, she has turned her gaze upon the domestic comedy of a Pakistani family in the 1940s and somehow managed to evoke the great political upheavals of the age.
Washington Post Book World
With understated prose and a seemingly simple narrative, Sidhwa’s novel conveys the human suffering of Partition far more effectively than a dozen history books.... Cracking India illustrates the power of good fiction: a historical tragedy comes alive, yielding insight into both the past and the subcontinent’s turbulent present.
USA Today
The spirited daughter of an affluent Parsee family narrates the story of the cracking of India, as she witnesses Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Parsees, and Sikhs fight for their land and their lives.
London Review of Books
Sidhwa's novel Cracking India is on of the finest responses made to the horror of the division of the subcontinent.
Salman Rushdie - The New Yorker
Sidhwa tempers Lenny’s hyper-awareness by capturing the whole range of her fears and joys as her innocence becomes another casualty of the violence among Moslems, Sikhs and Hindus.
Publishers Weekly
Discussion Questions
1. On page 30, Lenny says about her cousin’s upcoming tonsillectomy: "I visualize a red, scalloped scar running from ear to ear. It is a premonition." What do you think she means by this?
2. On page 125, Lenny says, "Now I know surely. One man’s religion is another man’s poison." Do you believe this? Given the violence that breaks out and the fact that India is “cracked” along religious lines, can you understand why Lenny feels this way?
3. Chapter 21 takes the reader back into Lenny’s family world, characterized by humor, joy, and a "regular life." Why do you think the author shows us Lenny’s family here?
4. How does Lenny use her handicap? How does she feel about it? Find examples of her taking delight in her handicapped status.
5.Throughout section two, Lenny steals and hides bottles. Finally her godmother discovers the theft on page 93. Are some people bet ter at lying than others? Is Ice-candy-man a good liar? Is Ayah?
6. Lenny has finally betrayed her ayah. What scenes in the earlier sections of the book led up to this betrayal? How were we prepared for Lenny’s inability to lie? After the betrayal, what does she do?
(Questions issued by publisher).
The Secrets She Carried
Barbara Davis, 2013
Penguin Group USA
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780451418777
Summary
When a young woman returns to North Carolina after a thirty-year absence, she finds that the once-grand tobacco plantation she called home homes more secrets than even she imagined.
Though Peak Plantation has been in her family for generations, Leslie Nichols can’t wait to rid herself of the farm left to her by her estranged grandmother Maggie—and with it the disturbing memories of her mother’s death, her father’s disgrace, and her unhappy childhood. But Leslie isn’t the only one with a claim to Peak.
Jay Davenport, Peak’s reclusive caretaker, has his own reasons for holding onto the land bequeathed to him by Leslie’s grandmother. Before she died, Maggie hinted at a terrible secret surrounding Adele Laveau, a lady’s maid who came to Peak during the 1930s and died under mysterious circumstances. Jay is haunted by Maggie’s story, yet the truth eludes him—until Leslie uncovers a cryptically marked grave on the property.
As they delve into the mystery of Adele’s death, Leslie and Jay discover shocking secrets that extend deep into the roots of Leslie’s family tree—secrets that have the power to alter her life forever. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—June, 1969
• Where—Fairlawn, New Jersey, USA
• Education—N/A
• Currently—lives in Holly Springs, North Carolina
After spending more than a decade in the jewelry business, Barbara Davis decided to leave the corporate world to pursue her lifelong passion for writing. The Secrets She Carried is her first novel. She currently lives near Raleigh, North Carolina with the love of her life, Tom, and their beloved ginger cat, Simon. (From the publisher.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
This beautifully written novel tells a tale of epic romance, one that lasts through the decades and centuries. Set on a plantation in a small town in North Carolina, loves stories unfold as the novel progresses through both past and present, and hidden secrets once thought long buried, slowly reveal themselves. It's a beautiful story and Davis does an amazing job telling it.
Romantic Times
This is the story of a journey of healing with intrigue, humor, mystery, secrets, romance and hope. While it starts out fairly slowly, it quickly picks up and the reader won't be able to stop reading. Be prepared for some late nights reading, with some take-out dinners and less sleep than customary. Barbara Davis has written a poignant, enigmatic, and loving novel that will delight all who relish a great story. Well-crafted and exciting work of contemporary fiction!
Crystal Book Reviews
Davis wowed me with her flawless blending of past and present in The Secrets She Carried. Her compassion for her characters made me care, and her haunting tale kept the pages flying. A poignant, mysterious and heartfelt story.
Diane Chamberlain, author - Necessary Lies
I read Barbara Davis's debut novel, The Secrets She Carried, deep into the night--one minute rushing to discover how the mysteries resolved, the next slowing to save her lovely and assured writing. Adele Laveau's haunting voice and Leslie's Nichols' journey toward understanding lingered long after I read the final page of this engrossing tale.
Julie Kibler, author - Calling Me Home
Discussion Questions
1. Running away rather than confronting uncomfortable situations is one of the themes of the book. What situations, past or present, is Leslie fleeing? Are the potential consequences she fears emotional, physical, or both?
2. What other characters in the book are seeking to run away from something, and how does that avoidance express itself? What pitfalls do they encounter as a result?
3. In the early part of the book the relationship between Leslie and Jay is tense and wary. What events eventually lead them to realize they may have misjudged one another?
4. How does Adele’s voice (first person/present tense) contribute to the overall ‘flavor’ of the book? Did you have trouble with the idea of her story being told from beyond the grave?
5. Do you have a favorite passage or scene from the book, and if so, what about it speaks to you?
6. The book includes two women who evolve deeply as a result of story events. Discuss how Leslie and Adele change, learn, and grow over the course of the book, ad what specific events evidence this growth?
7. Discuss Henry’s strengths and weakness. Though Adele never stops loving him, how does her perception of him change as the book progresses? How did you feel about his decision to send Jemmy away?
8. How does Leslie’s sense of “family” evolve over the course of the novel, and what events or discoveries specifically influence that evolution.
9. Discuss the concepts of forgiveness and redemption and how they are addressed in the book. Which characters require redemption and why? Which characters bestow forgiveness, and how is it shown?
10. The heart wants what it wants is repeated several times throughout the book. Do you see Adele relinquishing Maggie to Susanne as an act of strength or weakness? Does love justify any action?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)