In keeping with our theme of contemporary fiction, I would like to introduce you to Tafadzwa Taruvinga and his upcoming novel, “Gone with the Blue Zodiac.” This book is to be released in November 2023 and the author’s synopsis succinctly describes the story as a moving and humorous story that strongly resonates with traditional and modern families.

“Deeply in love, Nyika and Bettina Denga—a young couple living in Harare—are happy and their future is promising. All this is shattered when their car, driven by Nyika, collides with a train on a stormy night in 1993. He is killed in the accident, leaving behind Bettina, their children—Tungamirai and Paidamoyo—and the family dog, Mazowe. As they face life without Nyika, grief forces them to face their inner contradictions and family conflicts.

Tafadzwa Taruvinga made his writing debut in 2019 with his poignant memoir, “The Educated Waiter: Memoir of an African Immigrant” published by Melinda Ferguson Books, an imprint of @jacanamedia. In his memoir, he showed his vulnerability and humorous side as he narrated the tale of the immigrant graduate trying to forge his way through university and later establish a career in a seemingly inhospitable and hostile country. He candidly speaks of his encounters with poverty, racism, classism and xenophobia. It is an honest, heartbreaking account which adds to the growing collection of emigre literature. While African migration to the west is common, this story narrates intra-African migration which is becoming more common on the continent.

The first chapter of this book has been included in Now and Then—the 49th literary anthology compiled by The South African Council for English Education (SACEE) to examine scholars in the 2024 South African National English Olympiad. His short story Small Housing has been longlisted for the Afritondo Short Story Prize and published in The Anatomy of Flying Things. Tafadzwa has an Economics and Management degree from Rhodes University and a Master of Arts in Creative Writing degree (with distinction) from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Title: Gone With the Blue Zodiac: A Novel

Author: Tafadzwa Taruvinga

Publisher: Self Published

ISBN:978-0796124142

Title: The Educated Waiter: Memoir of an African Immigrant

Author: Tafadzwa Taruvinga

Publisher:  Melinda Ferguson Books, an imprint of Jacana Media

ISBN: 978-1928420583

#ZimbabweLitMonth is curated by novelist Sue Nyathi. She is a published Zimbabwean author of four fiction titles: The Polygamist (2012), The Gold Diggers (2018), A Family Affair (2020), and An Angel’s Demise (2022). She also edited a nonfiction anthology titled When Secrets Become Stories, Women Speak Out (2021). You can visit her website here and follow her on Twitter at @SueNyathi