![]() Their world isn’t the poverty-stricken Africa of the old stereotypes, a place whose people know nothing more than the bounds of their own deprivation. Its guava trees prove impossibly tempting to Darling and her friends, who steal the fruit both to feed their hunger and to enjoy a thrilling, if fleeting, sense of power.Īs they roam between these neighborhoods, Darling and her friends engage in a childlike but painfully insightful dialogue about life on the global margins. ![]() ![]() Then there is Budapest, a neighboring community where whites and rich Africans live in big, solid houses with all the amenities of the industrialized world. There is Darling’s Paradise, a collection of shacks whose residents have been beaten down by a hard life in a country with little concern for the small man. What do Detroit, Mich., and a town in Zimbabwe called Paradise have in common? For Darling, the narrator of NoViolet Bulawayo’s striking first novel, “We Need New Names,” the answer is almost nothing - except they’re places she has lived.ĭarling’s corner of Zimbabwe, which she prowls with a mischievous gang of children called Bastard, Chipo, Godknows, Sbho and Stina, is a study in contrasts, turning each day into an adventure. ![]()
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