Ww shall be meeting at 3pm on Sunday 17 April at Waterstones' Piccadilly branch. Details here, on the fifth floor.
About the author
Tendai Huchu was born in 1982 in Bindura, Zimbabwe. He attended Churchill HIgh School in Harare and then went to the the University of Zimbabwe to study Mining Engineering in 2001. He dropped out in the middle of the first semester when he discovered that the maths had more letters and symbols than it had numbers. Tendai has a great love or literature in particular the 19th century Russian novel. He is now a qualified podiatrist and lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.
What they say about the book
Like very good dark chocolate this is a delicious novel, with a bitter sweet flavour.
Vimbai is a hairdresser, the best in Mrs Kuhumalo's salon, and she knows she is the queen on whom they all depend. Her situation is reversed when the good looking smooth talking Dumsani joins them. However, his charm and desire to please slowly erode Vimbai's rancour and when he needs somewhere to live. Vimbai becomes his landlady.
So, when Dumisani needs someone to accompany him to his brother's wedding to help smooth over a family upset. Vimbai obliges. Startled to find that this smart hairdresser is the scion of the wealthiest families in Harare, she is equally surprised by the warmth of the welcome, and it is their subsequent generosity which appears to foster the relationship between the two young people.
The ambiguity of the deepening friendship used or embraced by Dumisani and Vimbai with different futures in mind collapses in one unexpected brutality when sweets and jealousies are exposed.
Written with a delightful humour and penetrating eye, The Hairdresser of Harare is a novel that you will find hard to put down.
'… a subtle and refreshing story of life in contemporary Harare… a novel of morality, prejudice and ambition told with humour and tragedy.'
Brian Chikwava, author of Harare North
Reviews/More information
The Standard (A Sunday Zimbabwe newspaper) Review
The Times - (South African newspaper) Review
Tendai's website: here
First impressions
Well I have yet to be disappointed by a Zimbabwean writer, Irene Sabatini (interview), Brian Chikwava - I've not read much at all really - but they are brilliant writers who know how to bring characters alive and have engaging stories to tell about their people and country, I just knew that I would enjoy this book.
First the book has a great cover, I cannot get over how beautiful the silhouette of a woman with a natural afro is, the hair outline is edged with the skyline of central Harare. It's kind of odd though, given that the one kind of hair that the hairdressers do not deal with is black hair in its completely natural style. In fact the belief is that women should leave the salon feeling like 'a white woman.' Masses to analyse and discuss at book club from that statement alone already.
I am really looking forward to discussing this book with members from Zimbabwe. I believe Tendai's descriptions of life in the city, to me they feel just like I imagine contemporary life in Harare to be. Will Zimbabwean friends agree? Vimbai - the main character - is wonderful - oh how to be a sheltered self-obsessed, ambitious twenty-six year old again. She's the business. Other characters are less well developed, but a lot of the time the story explores various attitudes to homosexuality without even actually talking about it - leaving so many things un-said. That's clever. Tendai's work is charming and funny, he really knows how keep the nerves taut, as you reader are in a state of anxiety - knowing more than the characters. I look forward to reading other things by Tendai and to see him grow as a writer.
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