| Vendor | |
|---|---|
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Liepman Literary Agency
Marc Koralnik |
| Original language | |
| English | |
WAYFARERS' HYMNS
A vibrant new Mda novel about art, love and outsiders - this iconic South African writer's best work yet.
Master storyteller Zakes Mda takes us from Lesotho's Mountain Kingdom to Joburg, the City of Gold, through the fascinating history of Lesotho's traditional and ever-evolving famo music and a cast of memorable characters.
We meet the boy-child minstrel kheleke and his surprising sister Moliehi, but readers who know the Mda classic WAYS OF DYING will relish also being reunited with Toloki, the professional mourner, and his beloved Noria again. Though each character is a joy to meet for the first time, and no knowledge of Mda's prior body of work is required.
Our minstrel hero is a wonderful, endearing character, an innocent in a world of fierce musical rivalry. Still playing a humble concertina in The Time of the Accordion, the boy-child yearns to acquire his own accordion, and to win the attention of his famo music heroes, and indeed the admiration of all, with his musical prowess. But in heading to the great city where fortunes are made and lost, he becomes entangled in a darker world of organised crime and vicious gangs, which coalesce - as they do in real life today - round the warring famo music groups. Focused only on his art, but drawn by his fierce ambition to be a legendary musical creator and performer too, he is blind to the truths of love that are right in front of him.
With the wandering boy-child's own story interwoven with the incredible yet true social history of the music, the Time of the Concertina and the Accordion - and the wars of the famo gangs, the battle for control of illegal mines, and more, WAYFARERS' HYMNS is a resonant, triumphant new work. As Mda ends the novel, with his classic grace note: The end is always a journey... And what a journey!
Zakes Mda divides his time between South Africa and his work as Professor of Creative Writing at Ohio University. He has been the recipient of major awards including the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the Sunday Times Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Writer's Prize and South African Silver Order of Ikhamanga for Excellence in Arts and Culture. THE HEART OF REDNESS and WAYS OF DYING are often cited as among South Africa's Top Ten classics.
We meet the boy-child minstrel kheleke and his surprising sister Moliehi, but readers who know the Mda classic WAYS OF DYING will relish also being reunited with Toloki, the professional mourner, and his beloved Noria again. Though each character is a joy to meet for the first time, and no knowledge of Mda's prior body of work is required.
Our minstrel hero is a wonderful, endearing character, an innocent in a world of fierce musical rivalry. Still playing a humble concertina in The Time of the Accordion, the boy-child yearns to acquire his own accordion, and to win the attention of his famo music heroes, and indeed the admiration of all, with his musical prowess. But in heading to the great city where fortunes are made and lost, he becomes entangled in a darker world of organised crime and vicious gangs, which coalesce - as they do in real life today - round the warring famo music groups. Focused only on his art, but drawn by his fierce ambition to be a legendary musical creator and performer too, he is blind to the truths of love that are right in front of him.
With the wandering boy-child's own story interwoven with the incredible yet true social history of the music, the Time of the Concertina and the Accordion - and the wars of the famo gangs, the battle for control of illegal mines, and more, WAYFARERS' HYMNS is a resonant, triumphant new work. As Mda ends the novel, with his classic grace note: The end is always a journey... And what a journey!
Zakes Mda divides his time between South Africa and his work as Professor of Creative Writing at Ohio University. He has been the recipient of major awards including the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the Sunday Times Fiction Prize, the Commonwealth Writer's Prize and South African Silver Order of Ikhamanga for Excellence in Arts and Culture. THE HEART OF REDNESS and WAYS OF DYING are often cited as among South Africa's Top Ten classics.
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Book
Published 2021-10-01 by Umuzi (SA) |