House of Stone

3.5 stars. A novel that I believe would benefit from multiple re-reads and research into the historical events at its centre: that is, the dissolution of colonial Rhodesia and the birth of modern-day Zimbabwe. Realistically, though, I cannot see myself having the desire or energy to do that anytime soon. This is the kind of history you find yourself unable to linger on. Tshuma examines the turmoil of recreating a nation's entire personal identity through the lens a single married couple, Abednego and Agnes, following the disappearance of their teenage son. The couple are manipulated and coerced into reliving past traumas, mainly from the Gukurahundi massacres into the 1980s, by our strange and mysterious narrator, Zamani. I spent most of the novel very confused about who exactly he was and, most importantly, about his motives. While I appreciated his role as a framing device and as a mystery that gives the reader some relief from the horrifying and violent flashbacks, I also felt this led to a rather slow and cumbersome narrative. Answers about Zamani only really start to emerge very late on, in the book's relatively short final section. In addition, I also felt Zamani's narration kept the reader at a distance Abednego and Agnes' characters. They felt underdeveloped as characters by the end, which is ironic considering Zamani's desperate aim of immersing himself in the family and its history, in order to somehow supplant their own son. In sum, this debut has some really impressive ideas and deals with some very difficult historical themes, but perhaps felt overly long and clumsy to me in parts.