I read The Creation of Half-Broken People by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu for review a couple of months ago and I can’t get it out of my head. It’s billed as African Gothic, and the author includes quite a few nods to works like Jane Eyre and The Woman in White. It’s also great historical fiction, set in modern-day Africa (specifically Bulawayo, Zimbabwe) and working backward in time through the eyes of four generations of women.
It’s not for everyone - it’s an amazing book but it’s very complex - but if you’re looking for a novel that’s truly different you should consider this one.
I remember seeing this book in one of the weekly newsletters but moved on without reading the review because the genre is one I don’t read given the many books already on my TBR list. After reading your forum comments and then your full review of the book, I’m rethinking my decision. I’m curious whether this is a book you’d re-read and whether it’s genre you’d more of.
1 Like
@Jill_Mercier I’m glad you’re reconsidering it; it’s one of those books I think is really special.
I absolutely want to read it again. The plot is full of layers, nuance, and “Easter eggs,” and I know I missed some of that on the first read-through.
I’m kind of a genre-neutral reader; there are very few genres I wouldn’t read, so yes, I would read another African gothic if it came my way. But really, it’s just the book’s framework that’s gothic. The three stories within the framework are pretty standard historical fiction without much of the ghostly trapping of the rest of it.