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eleanorfranzen 's review for:

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
4.0

I can see why this was shortlisted for the Booker, and I can see why it didn't win. It's beautiful, cruel and unsentimental, but with some inexplicable and major inconsistencies. It may not be perfect, but sections of it are downright chilling--especially the chapter entitled "How They Lived." The experience of transplantation and disorientation is so strongly evoked. Do read it.