Harare Review of Books

328 pp. Expected publication date: April 22, 2025 from House of Anansi Press. Fiction/African literature.

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One of my best friends is my baby sister (who is a completely and fully grown woman, but who’ll always be a baby sister to me). She’s twelve years younger than me, and as we’ve gotten older, and I greyer, I’ve sometimes been mistaken for her mother by people who obviously don’t have working eyes in their heads (eye-roll for you, Thelma).

But I have often thought about what makes us extra close (there’s another beloved sister between us, but it’s not the same). No doubt it’s partly that I helped raise the baby: the age difference means I am more like an aunt to her than a sibling, and I’m sure that’s made for more looking-up-to-ness than rivalry for her.

Sisterhood is at the heart of this lovely novel from Iryn Tushabe. Set in Uganda, it explores the relationship between Aine, who’s just finishing high school, and her sister Mbabazi. Aine is as naive about the world as you expect her to be, so she tends to expose secrets either without meaning to or while hoping for the best—like the fact that her big sister Mbabazi is baed up … with a woman … in Uganda, famous for its anti-homosexuality laws and prosecution of LGBTQ+ people.

Everything is Fine Here doesn’t take on so much the macro aspects of this as it does the personal ones: how Aine’s indiscretion affects her family and her relationship with Mbabazi. The lovely thing is that although the novel is all about these things, it’s also about Aine growing up into the woman she’s probably going to become; and if that isn’t enough of a grand adventure for readers, she also goes on one one memorable night. There are vivid descriptions of all the locations in the novel—semi-rural life, small town life, and the contrast between all of that and life in the big city, Kampala. Descriptions of life at Pike Girls’ School are also pretty familiar: I was a boarder very briefly in junior and again in high school, and some of Aine’s experiences took me back.

This is a really well-written novel that’s full of heart and wonderful characters. Apart from LGBTQ+ and family (found included) themes, as well as Aine’s coming-of-age journey, there’s a close and very moving study of bereavement and grief. Everything is Fine Here is excellent modern African literature that scores very highly on my “I need it not to be about war, poverty or AIDS please” list—important for me because I want to read about the complexity of African lives outside of tired media portrayals. There’s so much more to see, and Tushabe’s novel shows it—as well as managing to be an emotionally astute, fun and engaging read.

Very many thanks to House of Anansi Press for early access.

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