Without a Name and Under the Tongue
by Yvonne Vera
On This Page
Description
Yvonne Vera's novels chronicle the lives of Zimbabwean women with extraordinary power and beauty.Without a NameandUnder the Tongue, her two earliest novels, are set in the seventies during the guerrilla war against the white government. InWithout a Name (1994), Mazvita, a young woman from the country, travels to Harare to escape the war and begin a new life. But her dreams of independence are short-lived. She begins a relationship of convenience and becomes pregnant. InUnder the Tongue show more (1996), the adolescent Zhizha has lost the will to speak. In lyrical fragments, Vera relates the story of Zhizha's parents, and the horrifying events that led to her mother's imprisonment and her father's death. With this novel Vera became the first Zimbabwean writer ever to deal frankly with incest. With these surprising, at times shocking novels Vera shows herself to be a writer of great potential. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Around the World in 80 Books
79 works; 4 members
Author Information
11+ Works 422 Members
Yvonne Vera (1964-2005) was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and later attended York University in Toronto, gaining her doctorate in English Literature in 1995. Her fiction has won a number of international awards, including the Tucholski Prize from Swedish PEN (2004) and the Macmillan writer's prize for Africa (2002). Her novel Nehanda was show more short-listed for the Commonwealth Prize (Africa, 1995), which she won two years later for Under the Tongue (1997). show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
- Important places
- Zimbabwe
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 32
- Popularity
- 857,879
- Rating
- (5.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 1
