NoViolet Bulawayo
Born: 10-12-1981
NoViolet Bulawayo, born Elizabeth Zandile Tshele in Zimbabwe, is an acclaimed author known for her vivid storytelling and exploration of post-colonial themes. Her debut novel, "We Need New Names," was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2013. Bulawayo's work often reflects her experiences between Zimbabwe and the United States, offering poignant insights into identity, displacement, and resilience. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from Cornell University.
Book summaries for books written by NoViolet Bulawayo
Quotes
We left our countries and our languages and our religions and our cultures and ourselves behind. We left our mothers behind, saying goodbye but not knowing what the word meant.
I don't even know how to explain this thing that happened inside me when I saw the plane go. It was as if I was going with it, as if it was going without me, as if I was already gone, as if I was still here.
The only way not to be afraid is to be the one scaring, not the one scared.
We are on our way to destroy America, which has destroyed us.
It's a country of mad people, but we are the maddest, because we have to destroy it, the country we love and hate in equal measure.
We played in the dust, and fought over nothing, and laughed and laughed.
You have to have a new name because sometimes you need to start a new life, to get away from the old one.
We need new names for the things we have become.
We were all broken; we were all changed; we were all strangers.
We made up for everything we had lost. We learned to look out for ourselves, to take care of ourselves, to say no, to fight, to steal if we had to, to fend for ourselves.
We knew we were nothing. Our nothingness was all we had.
Not knowing is what makes us what we are.