When he lands in Harare North, our unnamed protagonist carries nothing
but a cardboard suitcase full of memories and an email address for his
childhood friend, Shingi. Finessing his way through immigration, he
spends a few restless weeks as the very unwelcome guest in his cousin's
home before tracking down Shingi in a Brixton squat. In this
astonishing, revelatory original debut, Caine Prize winner Brian
Chikwava tackles head-on the realities of life as a refugee. This is
the story of a stranger in a strange land - one of the thousands of
illegal Zimbabwean immigrants seeking a better life in England - with a
past he is determined to hide. From the first line the language fizzes
with energy, humour and not a little menace. As he struggles to make
his life in London (the "Harare North" of the title) and battles with
the weight of what he has left behind in a strife-torn Zimbabwe, every
expectation and preconception (both his and ours) is turned on its
head.The inhabitants of the squat function at various levels of
desperation - Shingi struggles to find meaningful work and to meet the
demands of his family back home; Tsitsi makes a living renting out her
baby to women defrauding social services; and Alex claims to have an
important job in Croydon. Fearlessly political, laugh-out-loud funny
and with an anti-hero whose voice is impossible to forget, Chikwava's
novel is an arresting account of London as it is experienced by the
Africa's dispossessed.
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