SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 BOOKER PRIZE `As natural as the grass grows.` - Chinua Achebe `[Dangarembga] is a wonderful creator of character.` - Doris Lessing `[A] Masterpiece.` - New York Times `Searing and enlightening.` - Sefi Atta, author of Everything Good Will Come In this tense and psychologically charged novel, Tsitsi Dangarembga channels the hope and potential of one young girl and a fledgling nation to lead us on a journey to discover where lives go after hope has departed. Here we meet Tambudzai, living in a run-down youth hostel in downtown Harare and anxious about her prospects after leaving a stagnant job. At every turn in her attempt to make a life for herself, she is faced with a fresh humiliation, until the painful contrast between the future she imagined and her daily reality ultimately drives her to a breaking point.