Fiction Friday | ‘The Scandalous Times of a Book Louse’ by Robert Muponde The Scandalous Times of a Book Louse is a magical coming-of-age tale set in rural Zimbabwe. Image: Supplied/Penguin Random House
Ah, you’ve arrived. Sit down, please, and make yourself comfortable. There may not be much dinner tonight Father is still out of work; Mother can’t do anything with those stunted maize plants in the stony ground but at least you are here, in Gushure Village, home to unsurpassed raconteurs and the Guramatunhu family, who know that telling stories staves off hunger.
Surprise awaits at every turn: thoughts and conversations bloom into poems, political speeches and songs.
Hilarious, poetic and poignant, Robert Muponde’s vibrant coming-of-age story of Ronald Guramatunhu brings to life rural Zimbabwe from the Second Chimurenga to independence.