The House of Hunger - Dambudzo Marechera

The House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera / ISBN 9780241544259 / 159-page paperback from Penguin Modern Classics

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'One of African literature's most fascinating and unorthodox figures' Brian Chikwava

'When all else fails, don't take it in silence: scream like hell, scream like Jericho was tumbling down, serenaded by a brace of trombones, scream'

Dambudzo Marechera burst onto the literary scene in 1978 with this vivid roar of a book exploring township life in pre-independence Zimbabwe. Rejecting what he saw as the narrow stereotypes of African literature, Marechera's stories portrayed a world flashing with violence and anarchic humour, as his narrator expresses his desperate alienation - from his family, from his student friends, from Zimbabwe itself.

'A writer who considered fiction a "form of combat", complex, challenging - and uniquely potent' Guardian

'Like overhearing a scream' Doris Lessing

'A terrible beauty is born out of the urgency of his vision' Angela Carter