Also, let us not forget Alexandra Fuller's own books which are wonderful..Don't let's go to the dogs tonight and also,Scribbling the Cat.

I'm so thrilled to see some coverage of books by Zimbabweans, because it's a really strong literature, despite the publishing challenges. I spent a year there in the early 90s and did a lot of local reading, because at the time the books were published in-country and were available (if not necessarily cheap). I find it hard to explain to people now about my experience there at the time, because I can't help them fully understand what a strong and fascinating country it is - it just seems that the Third Chimurenga, as Alexandra Fuller puts it, has swallowed up everything else about Zimbabwe to the outside eye.

It's been years since I read "Nervous Conditions" and "House of Hunger" but they are both great books, although I'd suggest not starting with "House of Hunger" as, if I recall correctly, it's a tougher read.

Chenjerai Hove's novel "Bones" is a very challenging read, but really fascinating. (However, for what it's worth, I couldn't get through Okri's "Famished Road" and I finished "Bones"...) He's a poet also who publishes in both English and Shona (which is fairly rare, I think).

Charles Mungoshi's "Waiting for the Rain" is a lot more accessible, and is deeply rooted in the rural areas that are the heart of Zimbabwean life (I don't think the plot touches on the war, it might be set before the war, but it's been a long time since I read it). And just the phrase "waiting for the rain" is such a huge part of Zimbabwean life...

And I heartily second Alexandra Fuller's "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" as a great read (haven't read her other book). It would be of interest not just to people interested in Africa, but also to anyone who had a rather chaotic, transient sort of childhood, especially involving booze. And anyone wanting to read a great book.

Personally I couldn't really get "The Grass is Singing" even though I read it after I'd spent a year in Zimbabwe, but now that I'm a bit older I think I'll attack it again. "African Laughter" by Lessing is a wonderful book also, discussing visits back to Africa after many years (non-fiction).

"White Man, Black War" by Bruce Moore-King is an interesting book about a white man's experience of the Zimbabwean war of liberation and its immediate aftermath.

Thanks for all of the wonderful ideas. I'd like to suggest Yvonne Vera for a journey more on the poetic side of things. Her novels are moving and lyrical. I especially recommend Nehanda. Shifting points of view, vivid images. Nehanda is one of the ancestral guardian spirits of the Shona people.

Is it an alternate historical narrative for the post-colonial nation or just a wonderful work of fiction? Vera blends historical events into slightly disembodied stories told in the style of an oral tradition.

"The paper is the stranger's own peculiar custom. Among ourselves, speech is not like rock. Words cannot be taken from the people who create them. People are their words.

...

[The stranger] carries his words in his palms, between his fingers. His words tremble with the wind."

- Nehanda.

To be honest, for me the best account of Zimbabwe over the years of colonisation is rendered in the novel "Hold My Hand, I'm Dying" by John Gordon Davies. I do realise that the novel may not really fall into the realms of "literature" (whatever that is!) but it is rich in tragedy. As a young boy, I read the story for it's "dirty" passages. Over the years, I have re-read it to try and marry the view of whites in ordinary, day to day struggles to that of white privilege which I seem to recall, and being black, I always fail to appreciate the story's account.

If you want a story which tugs at the heart-strings, if you want to read about Zimbabwe in a violent transition, then "Hold My Hand..." is that story.