by Tsitsi Dangarembga; translated by K. Anthony Appiah
Published by Seal Press (1988)
ISBN 978-1580050630
Description:
This stunning first novel, set in colonial Rhodesia during
the 1960s, centers on the coming of age of a teenage girl,
Tambu, and her relationship with her British-educated cousin
Nyasha. Tambu, who yearns to be free of the constraints of
her rural village, especially the circumscribed lives of the
women, thinks her dreams have come true when her wealthy uncle
offers to sponsor her education. But she soon learns that
the education she receives at his mission school comes with
a price. At the school she meets the worldly and rebellious
Nyasha, who is chafing under her father's authority. Raised
in England, Nyasha is so much a stranger among her own people
that she can no longer speak her native language. Tambu can
only watch as her cousin, caught between two cultures, pays
the full cost of alienation.
Nervous Conditions has become a modern African classic. It
was awarded the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 1989.
About the Author:
Tsitsi Dangarembga was born in Zimbabwe. She has also studied
filmmaking, graduating with honors from the German Film and
Television Academy in Berlin. Her first feature, Kare Kare
Zvako: Mother’s Day premiered at the Sundance Film Festival
in January 2005. Dangarembga lives in Harare, Zimbabwe, where
she owns a film production company. She is also at work completing
her second novel.
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