I bought the novel, 'We Need New Names,' in 2013 at Waterstones in London, the very year it was published by Chatto and Windus.
NoViolet Bulawayo is such an avid storyteller. With the opening chapter, 'Hitting Budapest,' which doubles as her award-winning Caine prize story of 2011, we are drawn into the narrator's journey in troubled Zimbabwe.
Darling, the narrator, the ten-year-old is ambitious, curious and like many of the children around her, always hungry and looking for ways to stave her hunger. The places she narrates depict the vastly picturesque affluent neighbourhoods contrasted against the impoverished areas that have been demolished, rendering thousands homeless.
Darling and her friends are amongst the homeless. And yet, like children will, they keep up their adventure and curiosity, dreaming of big houses, better lives, running into mischief and surviving.
After a few years, she makes it to Michigan and there while the infrastucture and culture vary widely from Zimbabwe, Darling remains the honest narrator giving the reader glimpses into her life across hundreds of thousands of miles.
We begin to feel for her as she grapples with belonging. Because of her colonial English, it takes a while before she is accepted by her American peers. The coldness of her cousin TK, the weirdness of her aunt and uncle and the strangeness of the shifting identity.
Paradise, which is the shanty town she lived in in Zimbabwe, drifts further apart and while she tries to cling to the memories, she also needs to adapt to Michigan.
With the opening chapter where Darling and her friends Bastard, Chipo and the rest are going to Budapest, one of the affluent neighbourhoods in Zimbabwe, to steal guavas because they are extremely hungry, one wonders if she found a new Budapest in Michigan. If anything, Darling is able to unravel the complexities of belonging and survival.
She assimilates in shocking yet understandable ways, and gets into all sorts of scrapes while scoring a few conquests against small time bullies. While she is no longer hungry all the time, she misses the camaraderie of her childhood friends.
Survival is difficult in the U.S for people like her who have not yet found their professional footing. Within this, she still finds her tribe and regains certain amounts of boldness. And as she looks toward advanced education, there is hope for her in her new home.
The honest and raw observation, captured in startling dialogue, and unexpected interactions, makes this novel such a worthwhile read.
Copies of We Need New Names are available on Amazon.
Reveiwed by Beverley N Nsengiyunva
