Shavi Rechikadzi

Zimbabwe Music & Arts Awards (ZIMAA) 2016 Best Fiction Book of the Year

Vakuru vakati, Chinokanganwa idemo, asi muti wakatemwa haukanganwi. Panotanga kupera vakomana vechikwata chaizvidaidza nezita rekuzvitsutsuma rekuti The Flava Crü, vanhu vanotadza kunzwisisa kuti zvauya sei. Chainyanyonetsa mapurisa ndeche kuti vakomana ava vaita sevaurawa negaranyanya rine nzwara dzino pinza, asi chiri chikara chavaitadza kudoma. Nyangwe panotanga kufawo vabereki vevakomana ava, pamwe negweta rainzi Robbie Rangwani, hapana akakurumidza kunyumwa kuti vese ava vakange vave kurumwa nechekuchera. Ko, handiti vakomana ava ndivo vamwechete vekuita gombedzanwa rekubata chibharo musikana webasa ainzi Nhamo Mpariwa? Handiti ndivo vabereki vekurangana, sevanhu vaive nemari nechiremera muchita, kuti vana vavo vasapikire mhosva iyi? Zvino, kana vaifunga kuti mhosva yavo yairova, vakange vave kuzvionera kuti dzimwe mhosva hadzirove asi dzinodzoka dzakura, dziine masimba anotyisa.....

If there is one thing that anyone who has read Musodza’s previous novel in Shona will have learnt to expect, it is a fearsome monster. He holds up his imaginary monster like a mirror against the real monsters of Zimbabwean society. Musodza takes on several societal issues- sexual predation, the inadequacies of the justice system, the decadence and lack of nobless oblige of the elite- and wraps them in a fast-paced horror novel about summoning an ancient demonic entity...- Edinah Masanga, Amplifying Women's Voices, 2015

ABOUT THE NOVEL

From the master of Shona-language horror comes a tale of sexual violence, corruption in high places, injustice....and an unspeakable horror summoned by arts darker than anything yet seen in Zimbabwean lore.

In Harare, a young girl, an orphaned domestic servant, is gang-raped by the sons of well-to-do families. Denied justice by a system that sometimes fails those who need it the most, she can only turn to someone who has been a victim too. Someone who knows another way of punishing her rapists. A way based on the knowledge of things that no one ought to know....Shavi Rechikadzi is the first novel in the Shona language to incorporate Lovecraftian lore.