The Creation of Half-Broken People

by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

Picador Africa

A story of four remarkable women – anonymous, misremembered, misbegotten and forgotten – and sooooooo much more … a glorious and complex read.

Here’s the blurb:
“Ndlovu’s latest book is an African take on the gothic novel, and readers can look forward to apparitions and hauntings blended with Ndlovu’s rich, melodious prose and astute socio-political commentary.

The Creation of Half-Broken People tells the tale of a nameless woman plagued by visions. She works for the Good Foundation and its museum, a place filled with artifacts from the family’s various explorations in Africa, the Good family members all being descendants of Captain John Good, of King Solomon’s Mines fame.

The novel explores how the continent’s past continues to haunt its present and examines the collusion of colonialism, patriarchy and capitalism in creating and normalising a certain kind of womanhood.”

It’s all of the above and so much more. Told in exquisite prose, with compassion, complexity and the most delicious irony, this is Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu at her best.

Watch my review on instagram

This is a writer who should make everyone sit up. Unusually in her generation, she has an acute sense of both history and the future, mixing attention to the regrettable effect of colonialism on African sensibility, and the narratives it has produced, with exciting formal approaches that open a way to making it all new. And, let’s hope, better! – Giles Foden, author of The Last King of Scotland