Want to know what books Georgina Godwin recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Georgina Godwin's favorite book recommendations of all time.
1
Dambudzo Marechera | 3.99
Winner of the Guardian fiction prize, this novella and nine short stories describe life in a Zimbabwean township. They are about the brutalization of the individual's mental processes, until madness, violence and despair become the normal state of affairs for families in black urban areas. more Winner of the Guardian fiction prize, this novella and nine short stories describe life in a Zimbabwean township. They are about the brutalization of the individual's mental processes, until madness, violence and despair become the normal state of affairs for families in black urban areas. less 
Georgina GodwinYes. He died homeless on a park bench in 1987. He’d been kicked out of Oxford for ‘unsociable behaviour and academic dereliction’ … (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
2
Tsitsi Dangarembga | 4.29
Tambudzai dreams of education, but her hopes only materialise after her brother's death, when she goes to live with her uncle. At his mission school, her critical faculties develop rapidly, bringing her face to face with a new set of conflicts involving her uncle, his education and his family. Tsitsi Dangarembga's quietly devastating first novel offers a portrait of Zimbabwe, where enlightenment brings its own profound dilemmas. more Tambudzai dreams of education, but her hopes only materialise after her brother's death, when she goes to live with her uncle. At his mission school, her critical faculties develop rapidly, bringing her face to face with a new set of conflicts involving her uncle, his education and his family. Tsitsi Dangarembga's quietly devastating first novel offers a portrait of Zimbabwe, where enlightenment brings its own profound dilemmas. less Georgina GodwinYes. Nervous Conditions. This was hailed as big contribution to African feminism at the time, in 1988 when it was published. And it was anti-colonial, dealing with racial distinctions and culture clashes and it challenges all sorts of stereotypes about the west being more sophisticated than Africa and about African womanhood. Even the title is an attack on colonialism because it’s talking about... (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
3
Caine Prize winner Brian Chikwava tackles the realities of life in London for Africa’s dispossessed in this fearlessly political and very funny story of an illegal Zimbabwean immigrant seeking a better life in England — with a past he is determined to hide. more Caine Prize winner Brian Chikwava tackles the realities of life in London for Africa’s dispossessed in this fearlessly political and very funny story of an illegal Zimbabwean immigrant seeking a better life in England — with a past he is determined to hide. less Georgina GodwinGG: No. And he was never a Green Bomber either. He writes in this odd sort of patois that takes a long time to get into, about living under the radar, being a parasite. It’s the London of the dispossessed – he’s a mesmerising character. It’s humorous too, an incredibly powerful and original voice. It’s about his personal choices and wider events, about his denial – he won’t acknowledge his house... (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
4
This is a story about a paradise lost. . . . About an African dream that began with a murder . . .In 1978, in the final, bloodiest phase of the Rhodesian civil war, eleven-year-old Lauren St John moves with her family to Rainbow's End, a wild, beautiful farm and game reserve set on the banks of a slowflowing river. The house has been the scene of a horrific attack by guerrillas, and when Lauren's family settles there, a chain of events is set in motion that will change her life irrevocably.
"Rainbow's End" captures the overwhelming beauty and extraordinary danger of life in the... more This is a story about a paradise lost. . . . About an African dream that began with a murder . . .In 1978, in the final, bloodiest phase of the Rhodesian civil war, eleven-year-old Lauren St John moves with her family to Rainbow's End, a wild, beautiful farm and game reserve set on the banks of a slowflowing river. The house has been the scene of a horrific attack by guerrillas, and when Lauren's family settles there, a chain of events is set in motion that will change her life irrevocably.
"Rainbow's End" captures the overwhelming beauty and extraordinary danger of life in the African bush. Lauren's childhood reads like a girl's own adventure story. At the height of the war, Lauren rides through the wilderness on her horse, Morning Star, encountering lions, crocodiles, snakes, vicious ostriches, and mad cows. Many of the animals are pets, including Miss Piggy and Bacon and an elegant giraffe named Jenny. The constant threat of ruthless guerrillas prowling the land underscores everything, making each day more dangerous, vivid, and prized than the last.
After Independence, Lauren comes to the bitter realization that she'd been on the wrong side of the civil war. While she and her family believed that they were fighting for democracy over Communism, others saw the war as black against white. And when Robert Mugabe comes into power, he oversees the torture and persecution of thousands of members of an opposing tribe and goes on to become one of Africa's legendary dictators. The ending of this beautiful memoir is a fist to the stomach as Lauren realizes that she can be British or American, but she cannot be African. She can love it -- be willing to die for it -- but she cannot claimAfrica because she is white. less Georgina GodwinShe calls it a memoir of childhood, war and an African farm and it’s a girl’s own adventure really. She has a fantastic sense of place. (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
5
Georgina GodwinIn Mukiwa he talks with the voice of a child and that child grows up during the book – it’s very affecting. It’s really a love letter to my mother. And the second one is a love letter to my father, or, perhaps an examination of him. It’s also a kind of Zimbabwe 101 and it’s what new diplomats to Zim read because it explains what happened, why it happened. (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
Don't have time to read Georgina Godwin's favorite books? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
