We need new names - noviolet bulawayo

This novel is an emotional rollercoaster. The story starts with a group of kids in Africa who go to steal Guavas from a richer neighborhood. They described the games the play, and the difficulties they face. They don't go to school because there are no teachers. One of the kids is pregnant, possibly by the grandfather.

We never really learn in which country they are, but they describe a common pattern: independence, civil war, mass emigration.

Every character has a peculiar name, from Godknows, to Mother of Bones.

The book is portrayed from the perspective of the kids (perhaps with a heavy autobiographical touch by the author). They see when men take white folks from their houses from a tree. They enter into the house to play, even pick up the phone to the horror of the daughter who was calling their parents.

The tensions in the slum are not high, people go about minding their own businesses. But they have nothing. Food is scarce, health is inexistent. It's a country that has collapsed in almost every possible dimension. And kids just think about emigrating somewhere else. From South Africa to the US.

There's also some stories about the NGO's that visit and leave things behind. Even if they are useless to the kids, still the people are self-congratulatory for a job well done. I remember the day a bunch of politicians arrived somewhere with plenty of socks for kids, without realizing they didn't have shoes.

And this is where the book has an inflection point, when Darling moves to the US to live with the aunt Fostalina. She is young, around 13 or so. And the challenges are many. From spoiled kids, to the cold weather. To the disenchantment of not finding in America the paradise they've seen on TV.

People get obsessed over "Africa" as if it would be a single entity, a single country, a single reality.

As Darling grows, she loses touch with her friends and country. Over a phone call, a friend picks up and complains that while she stayed, Darling has left, and has no right asking how things were or emitting an opinion.

A think the book is a fundamental depiction of the reality of many migrants around the world. If I (an immigrant with a radical different background than the one of characters from the book) could relate to some of the things described, I can feel the accuracy of the hardships so many people go through in life.

Conflict zones abound, and kids grow with a sense of reality which is radically different from what we suspect. They still play, but in a constant state of anguish, hunger, and uncertainty. Any day can be the day they become orphans.

And emigration is not easy. From not having papers, to having to deal with the crap others put you through. As a kid, a teenager, or an adult.

Took me a while to finish the book. The story is compelling, but the way it's written is harder to read than I expected. Tough topic, tough reality.

Tags: #reading #reading-2024