Welcome to a shanty called Paradise, where starvation, poverty, conflict, rape, AIDS and child pregnancy are everyday occurrences, and where Darling and her friends distract themselves from these daily horrors by stealing guavas, playing Find Bin Laden and singing along to Lady Gaga.
This is exactly the sort of contrast that We Need New Names continually presents its audience with, ensuring that any notions of Zimbabwean life we might have are turned on their heads. This is a tragic and serious story of loss, yes, but it is in equal turns funny, heartwarming and surprising.
Life in Paradise is relayed to us through the eyes of ten-year-old Darling, a child made to witness situations most adults would never have to experience, and who relays them to us in an entirely unquestioning manner. 'There are guavas to steal in Budapest,' the novel begins, 'and right now I'd die for guavas. We didn't eat this morning and my stomach feels like somebody just took a shovel and dug everything out.' Darling's role as child narrator is crucial to the success of this book: because she is too young to make sense of the brutality happening around her, she has no reason to conceal any of the detail and as a result there is no filter on her narrative.
She never complains or asks for pity from the reader because she doesn't know she deserves it; this is what makes her story all the more tragic.
One scene in particular has stayed with me long after I put the book down, involving Darling and her 11-year-old friend Chipo, who has fallen pregnant. 'Today, we're getting rid of Chipo's stomach once and for all,' decides Darling. 'One, it makes it hard for us to play, and two, if we let her have the baby,
We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
In which a young girl moves from Zimbabwe to the US but doesn't have a great time in either place