We Need New Names

I knew this writer was going to blow up. Her honesty, her voice, her formidable command of her craft -- all were apparent from the first page.

Junot Diaz

NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names is an exquisite and powerful first novel, filled with an equal measure of beauty and horror and laughter and pain. The lives (and names) of these characters will linger in your mind, and heart, long after you're done reading the book. No Violet Bulawayo is definitely a writer to watch

Edwidge Danticat

I was bowled over... by NoViolet Bulawayo's shatteringly good first novel, We Need New Names

Anne Tyler, Good Housekeeping

NoViolet Bulawayo is a powerful, authentic, nihilistic voice - feral, feisty, funny - from the new Zimbabwean generation that has inherited Robert Mugabe's dystopia

Peter Godwin, author of When a Crocodile Eats the Sun

NoViolet Bulawayo has created a world that lives and breathes - and fights, kicks, screams and scratches, too. She has clothed it in words and given it a voice at once dissonant and melodic, utterly distinct

Aminatta Forna

Darling is 10 when we first meet her, and the voice Ms. Bulawayo has fashioned for her is utterly distinctive — by turns unsparing and lyrical, unsentimental and poetic, spiky and meditative... stunning novel... remarkably talented author

Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

Bulawayo, whose prose is warm and clear and unfussy, maintains Darling's singular voice throughout, even as her heroine struggles to find her footing. Her hard, funny first novel is a triumph.

Entertainment Weekly

Enthralling... A provocative, haunting debut from a writer to watch

Entertainment Weekly

Enthralling... a provocative, hauting debut from an author to watch

Elle (US)

Bulawayo’s novel is not just a stunning piece of literary craftsmanship but also a novel that helps elucidate today’s world

Felicity Capon, Daily Telegraph

A work of gritty naturalism

Adam Kirsch, Prospect

We Need New Names is full of life -- you can almost feel the sun on your arms and hear the birds in the trees -- and Bulawayo is certainly one to watch

Stylist

Original, witty and devastating

People Magazine

Witty... ebullient... heartbreaking... our feisty heroine's sparkle never dims

i

A tale of our time, a powerful condemnation of global inequality from the point of view of a 10-year-old in impossible circumstances... a stunning piece of literary craftsmanship

Weekly Telegraph

A brilliantly poignant tale of what it is to be an outsider in a strange land

Glamour

A debut that blends wit and pain... heartrending... wonderfully original

Margaret Busby, Independent

A powerful new African voice

Pride Magazine

Written in sharp, snappy prose, this is a raw and thought-provoking debut

Easy Living

A truthful, profound snapshot of the kind of life that often gets overlooked. Moving, fresh, enlightening. A fantastic novel

Alice, Waterstone's Aberystwyth

The challenging rhythm and infectious language of NoViolet Bulawayo's emotionally articulate novel turns a familar tale of immigrant displacement into a heroic ballad. Bulawayo's courage and her literary scope shine out from this outstanding debut

Daily Mail

A really talented and ambitious author

Helon Habila, Guardian

Bulawayo's use of contemporary culture...as well as her fearless defense of the immigrant experience through honoring the cadence of spoken language, sets this book apart---on the top shelf

Oprah magazine

A fresh, engaging take on the relationship between rich and poor

Wanderlust

Often heartbreaking, but also pulsing with colour and energy

Kate Saunders, The Times (Saturday Review)

Creates a fictional world that is immediate, fresh, and identifies the arrival of a talented writer

Francesca Angelini, Sunday Times (Culture)

A bittersweet coming-of-age tale of displacement during the southern African nation's 'lost decade'

Voice

NoViolet Bulawayo uses words potently, blending brutality and lyricism in her unflinching, bittersweet story of displacement

Anita Sethi, Observer

Wonderfully, this is a novel whipped with the complexities of African identities in a post-colonial and globalised world and its most compelling theme is that of contemporary displacement, a theme that will resonate with many readers

We Sat Down Blog

This is a very readable tale, thanks to some excellent writing and its central character: a likeable heroine in a difficult world

Sarah Warwick, UK Regional Press Syndication

When a novel is praised by Helon Habila and Oprah Winfrey, you have to sit up

Katy Guest, Independent on Sunday

Extraordinary

Gaby Wood, Daily Telegraph

We Need New Names is a distinct and hyper-contemporary treatment of the old You Can’t Go Home Again mould, and the book has more than enough going for it to easily graduate from the Booker longlist to the final six

Richard Woolley, Upcoming

How does a writer tell the story of a traumatized nation without being unremittingly bleak? NoViolet Bulawayo manages if by forming a cast of characters so delightful and joyous that the reader is seduced by their antics at the same time as finding out about the country’s troubles… A debut that is poignant and moving but which also glows with humanity and humour

Leyla Sanai, Independent on Sunday

deeply felt and fiercely written first novel

Scotsman

Bulawayo's novel may scream Africa, but her deft and often comic prose captures memories and tastes, among them the bitterness of disappointment, that transcend borders

Jake Flanagin, Atlantic

A novel that deals with the immigrant experience and torn identity is nothing new; what justifies the inclusion of We Need New Names on the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize is NoViolet Bulawayo’s command of Darling’s captivating voice, as she and her friends race through Paradise – "When we hit the bush we are already flying, scream-singing like the wheels in our voices will make us go faster" – a siren call of life and laughter more powerful than the hardships that blight her childhood.

Lucy Scholes, Times Literary Supplement

This is a young author to watch

Suzi Feay, Financial Times

Bulawayo excels... there is an inevitable nod to Achebe and the verbal delights and child's-eye view of the world is redolent of The God of Small Things. Otherwise, the magic is all Bulawayo's own

Literary Review

Proof again that the Caine prize for African writers really knows how to pick a winner… [It’s] a tour de force. Ten-year-old Darling is an unforgettable and necessary new voice: add her to the literary cannon

Jackie Kay, Observer

This brilliant novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize

Marie Claire UK

An exceptionally fine novel, as powerful and memorable as Coetzee's magnificent Disgrace... We need new novels like this – authentic, original and cathartic

Judy Moir, Herald

There is no doubt that a new star of African female writing is truly born. The one-to-watch

New African

Follow ten-year-old Darling from the Paradise shantytown to America in this searing indictment of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe

Patricia Nicol, Metro

Shocking, often heartbreaking – but also pulsing with energy

The Times

A poignant, witty, original and lyrical coming of age story

Caroline Jowett, Daily Express

Talented and ambitious

Helon Habila, Guardian

A powerful fictional condemnation of global inequality

Sunday Telegraph

From the opening chapter…the first-person narrative achieves a breathtaking vibrancy, ambition and pathos

Irish Examiner

Deserved all the publicity it got

Michela Wrong, Spectator

We Need New Names is a "before" and "after" kind of novel, the kind that marks a new beginning, a new shift in the African literary tradition . . . To me, it is a complete novel in terms of aesthetics and politics

Mukoma Wa Ngugi, The Rise of the African Novel