Asked how much has living in America inspired her recent writing, including Glory, especially in the era of Trump and with the growing divisions in American society, Zimbabwean novelist NoViolet Bulawayo said: “My work is almost always in conversation with the world around me, and that of course includes my two complicated homes, Zimbabwe and the US.
Glory is Bulawayo’s second novel. It is being published eight years after We Need New Names, her debut novel. She became the first Black woman from Africa to be shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize in 2013.
Described by many as highly gifted, Bulawayo made it to the final six once again with the Glory, a political satire inspired by George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Narrated by a chorus of animals, the judges described the book as “a magical crossing of the African continent, in its political excesses and its wacky characters”.
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Notably, there is certainly enough of America, and many other countries, in Glory – the novel may be mirroring a specific place, but tyranny isn’t just a Zimbabwean problem. The story fits so many places and can happen anywhere.
“Where “We Need New Names” was a tale of exile and displacement and unbelonging, “Glory” is one of roots, reclamation, homecoming. Together Darling’s and Destiny’s stories form a kind of horseshoe — the path of the diaspora bent back on itself in an arc,” New York Times’ Violet Kupersmith observes.
Veteran novelist Alan Garner became the oldest author to be shortlisted for the Booker prize and is the only British writer on this year’s list. He was joined on the shortlist, described by chair of judges Neil Macgregor as six books that “speak powerfully about important things”, by one Irish writer, two Americans, a Zimbabwean and a writer from Sri Lanka.
The 2022 winner was announced on Monday 17 October in an awardceremony held at the Roundhouse in London. The six shortlisted authors each received £2,500 and a specially bound edition of their book; the winner walked away with £50,000.
