Zinzi Clemmons – författare

A short, intense and profoundly moving debut novel about race, identity, sex and death – from one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35Thandi is a black woman, but often mistaken for Hispanic or Asian.She is American, but doesn’t feel as American as some of her friends.She is South African, but doesn’t belong in South Africa either.Her mother is dying.‘Zinzi Clemmons’s debut novel signals the emergence of a voice that refuses to be ignored’ Paul Beatty, winner of the Man Booker Prize 2016‘Navigates the many registers of grief, loss and injustice … acutely moving’ Margo Jefferson, author of Negroland‘Wise and tender and possessed of a fiercely insightful intimacy’ Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine

A short, intense and profoundly moving debut novel about race, identity, sex and death – from one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35Thandi is American, but not as American as some of her friends. She is South African, but South Africa terrifies her. She is a black woman with light skin.Her mother is dying.In exquisite vignettes of wry warmth and extraordinary emotional power, What We Lose tells Thandi’s story. Both raw and artful, minimal yet rich, it is an intimate portrait of love and loss, and a fierce meditation on race, sex, identity, and staying alive.

A short, intense and profoundly moving debut novel about race, identity, sex and death – from one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35Thandi is a black woman, but often mistaken for Hispanic or Asian.She is American, but doesn’t feel as American as some of her friends.She is South African, but doesn’t belong in South Africa either.Her mother is dying.

A National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 HonoreeNBCC John Leonard First Book Prize FinalistLonglisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction & the Aspen Words Literary PrizeNamed a Best Book of the Year by Vogue, NPR, Elle, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, The Huffington Post, The A.V. Club, The Root, Paste, Bustle, and Kirkus Reviews“The debut novel of the year.” —Vogue“Like so many stories of the black diaspora, What We Lose is an examination of haunting. ” —Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker“A richly volatile study of grief, wonderment and love.” —Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal“A startling, poignant debut.” —The Atlantic “Raw and ravishing, this novel pulses with vulnerability and shimmering anger.” —Nicole Dennis-Benn, O, the Oprah Magazine“Stunning. . . . Powerfully moving and beautifully wrought, What We Lose reflects on family, love, loss, race, womanhood, and the places we feel home.” —Buzzfeed“Remember this name: Zinzi Clemmons. Long may she thrill us with exquisite works like What We Lose. . . . The book is a remarkable journey.” —EssenceFrom an author of rare, haunting power, a stunning novel about a young African-American woman coming of age—a deeply felt meditation on race, sex, family, and countryRaised in Pennsylvania, Thandi views the world of her mother’s childhood in Johannesburg as both impossibly distant and ever present. She is an outsider wherever she goes, caught between being black and white, American and not. She tries to connect these dislocated pieces of her life, and as her mother succumbs to cancer, Thandi searches for an anchor—someone, or something, to love. In arresting and unsettling prose, we watch Thandi’s life unfold, from losing her mother and learning to live without the person who has most profoundly shaped her existence, to her own encounters with romance and unexpected motherhood. Through exquisite and emotional vignettes, Clemmons creates a stunning portrayal of what it means to choose to live, after loss. An elegiac distillation, at once intellectual and visceral, of a young woman’s understanding of absence and identity that spans continents and decades, What We Lose heralds the arrival of a virtuosic new voice in fiction.One of the New York Times, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Redbook, Marie Claire, Essence, Houston Chronicle, LA Daily News, Nylon, and Elle’s Books to Read This Summer