Stephen Hayes reviewed White Shadow by Andrea Eames
None
4 stars
I suppose the best way to describe the genre of this novel is a Bildungsroman, set in the time of Zimbabwe's Second Chimurenga, forty years ago. Was it as long ago as that? And the author wasn't even born then.
Tinashe is a young Shona boy who grows up in a rural village, ocasionally visited by his rich uncle from the city and his cousin. He dreams of going to school and university, like his uncle, but his cousin doesn't seem to value these things. Tinashe's younger sister, Hazvinei, is strange, and communes with spirits. Her brother, and other people, sometimes find her rather frightening, but he feels obliged to care for her, even when it threatens to disrupt his education.
In some ways it is like an African version of [b:David Copperfield|58696|David Copperfield|Charles Dickens|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1309281852s/58696.jpg|4711940] or [b:The catcher in the rye|5107|The Catcher in the Rye|J.D. Salinger|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1349928703s/5107.jpg|3036731], but it is also …
I suppose the best way to describe the genre of this novel is a Bildungsroman, set in the time of Zimbabwe's Second Chimurenga, forty years ago. Was it as long ago as that? And the author wasn't even born then.
Tinashe is a young Shona boy who grows up in a rural village, ocasionally visited by his rich uncle from the city and his cousin. He dreams of going to school and university, like his uncle, but his cousin doesn't seem to value these things. Tinashe's younger sister, Hazvinei, is strange, and communes with spirits. Her brother, and other people, sometimes find her rather frightening, but he feels obliged to care for her, even when it threatens to disrupt his education.
In some ways it is like an African version of [b:David Copperfield|58696|David Copperfield|Charles Dickens|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1309281852s/58696.jpg|4711940] or [b:The catcher in the rye|5107|The Catcher in the Rye|J.D. Salinger|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1349928703s/5107.jpg|3036731], but it is also bound up with the surreal and unpredictabe world of Shona mythology, where the spirits can make people feel invincible at one moment and dash all their hopes the next.