Without a Name

Fiction. African American Studies. From the opening sentence--Heat mauled the upturned faces.---on, WITHOUT A NAME burns forward with graceful, poetic power. Set in Zimbabwe, this novel tracks a young woman's journey for refuge while her country is in the midst of guerrilla war. Vera is the author of the short story collection WHY DON'T YOU CARVE OTHER ANIMALS and the novel NEHANDA, both short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers Award Africa Region.

"Caught between memory and dreaming, the hopeful exile weaves a comforting performance out of a tale of agony."

The place is white-ruled Rhodesia of the seventies (now Zimbabwe), the exile the African in his own land. Young men and women flee from their villages to join the freedom fighters in the forest.

These stories, set during the years of the armed struggle, tell of the other struggle, that of survival of those who stayed behind. Told essentially from the women's point of view in lyrical but unaffected prose, the stories recreate the dark atmosphere of those months full of fear and hope.