Harare Review of Books

200 pages.

Expected publication date: May 23, 2023 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Literary fiction.

This is a really beautiful book that I would put on the “Literature for Philosophy and English Majors” shelf, because even after reading it, I’m not sure I got all of the references. Perhaps not even half. The ideas feel fragmentary, and revelations come only very slowly, so you’re carried along in a dream-like state right to the end of the book, where, to be honest, I’m not sure if I found answers to the questions that had been posed. In short, this is a literary fugue.

But, it is beautiful! A university professor goes in pursuit of answers to a mystery involving a manuscript left by an estranged and recently deceased friend. There is a subplot (although important to the story) about New Germany, a settlement founded by anti-Semites in Paraguay, with a concurrent thread on Indigenous South Americans. The main themes of the book are memory, trauma, delusion, and disappearing cultures.

Where the book excelled for me: a section referencing Guilio Camillo’s Theatre of Memory, where traumatised villagers try to reconstruct memories of their village and their past after a terrible event. This got me thinking quite deeply about the democide in my own country, and about how healing could happen—a way to access the past separately from trauma. I also loved the books within the book, particularly (mild spoiler) the included graphics.

So: recommended. This is a quick but quite demanding read, with a formally inventive structure. Recommended for people who like their books to challenge them. I plan to read it again soon.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC.

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