Tag: Award Winner
Publisher: amabooks Publishers, Zimbabwe
Pages: 160
Year: 2008
Category: Anthologies & Collections, Literature
Dimensions: 216 x 140 mm
Long Time Coming
Short Writings from Zimbabwe
Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe has been chosen by New Internationalist as one of their two ‘Best Books of 2009’.
The book brings together short stories and poems from thirty-three writers that provide snapshots of this turbulent period in Zimbabwe’s history. Snapshots of living in a country where basic services have crumbled: where shops have no food, taps no water, banks no money, hospitals no drugs, bars no beer. Snapshots of characters surviving against seemingly insurmountable odds. Horrific snapshots of the abuse of power, of violence and oppression, of the destruction of dreams. But this is Zimbabwe and there are lighter moments and moments of hope: in some of life’s simple pleasures, in the coming of the rains, in the wink and the smile of a stranger, in a challenge to patriarchy, in the inner strength of the people, in fighting back.
The writers are Raisedon Baya, Wim Boswinkel, Diana Charsley, Brian Chikwava, Julius Chingono, Mathew Chokuwenga, Bhekilizwe Dube, John Eppel, Peter Finch, Petina Gappah, David Goodwin, Anne Simone Hutton, Monireh Jassat, Ignatius Mabasa, Fungai Rufaro Machirori, Judy Maposa, Deon Marcus, Christopher Mlalazi, Gothataone Moeng, Wame Molefhe, Linda Msebele, Mzana Mthimkhulu, Peter Ncube, Thabisani Ndlovu, Pathisa Nyathi, Andrew Pocock, John S. Read, Bryony Rheam, Lloyd Robson, Ian Rowlands, Owen Sheers, Chaltone Tshabangu and Sandisile Tshuma.
£21.00 – £22.00
About the editors
Review
“In a powerful and timely collection of short stories and poems about Zimbabwe by 33 writers, Long Time Coming offers snapshots of life in a collapsed country. It is a collection straining with suspended hope; change has taken too long to arrive.”
The Africa Report
“Long Time Coming: Short writings from Zimbabwe is about hope, about resilience, and how the people have waited for so long to be delivered from their suffering. A fine read.”
Raisdon Baya, The Zimbabwean
‘”Bloody men. Bloody chicken buses. Bloody poverty. Bloody Zimbabwe”, writes Linda Msebele in a tale where water supply fails, shoppers riot, and days fill with violence and repression. Yet even she manages to end on a flicker of hope. Light remains in the human soul.”
Peter Finch, The Western Mail, Wales
“Each piece here – and they are miniature marvels, with no story longer than eight pages – vividly illuminates an aspect of what it is actually like to live in a country that has been systematically looted and stripped of functioning organizations…It would be unfair to single out individual authors for praise but, taken together, these stories cohere into a panorama of Zimbabwe. Read Long Time Coming and remember the next line in Sam Cooke’s song ‘…but I know a change is gonna come’.”
The New Internationalist
“The books helps to show that ’amaBooks could be fast becoming for Bulawayo what Weaver Press is to Harare. You see it in the very meticulous editing and inspired choice and arrangement of artists.”
Memory Chirere, Art Initiates
“… a remarkable achievement.”
New Welsh Review, edition 88, 2010
“In recent years it seems the only news stories coming out of Africa are about poverty, corruption, violence and misery, so it’s easy to forget that the continent is more than just the disaster zone of the world. Fiction, poetry and art continues to flourish…”
Politico, Ireland
“This is the best collection of short stories from Jane Morris so far! I did enjoy the stories and the complex plots. The African literary tradition is illustrated and represented well by these writers and stories. This is a collection for every lover of African literature. Educators and Sociologists take note and get as copy!”
Rosetta Codling, Examiner.com
“The story is told in beautiful prose, peppered with old world verse and philosophical musings. Her characters are sometimes funny, foolish, tragic, selfish and downright irritating. All are bound together masterfully in the messy business of living, and searching, adjusting and moving forward.”
Harare News
Related books
The Trick is to Keep Breathing
£20.00 – £21.00
Women Writing Zimbabwe
£20.00 – £21.00