THE SCANDALOUS TIMES OF A BOOK LOUSE, a memoir of childhood

382pp., paperback, Cape Town, 2021

A coming-of-age memoir set in rural Zimbabwe from the Second Chimurenga to independence.

"Stories form the blood and bones of Robert Muponde's enchanting Life and Times. Book louse Ronald in Rusape chronicles his upbringing through a jewelled array of stories, voices and images quarries from the pungent material of the past. The Scandalous Times of A Book Louse gives a vivid portrait of growing up in rural Zimbabwe in the 1970s and 80s - the classroom scrapes, the cadged cold drinks, the transformative times at the river. Storytelling in this book is both healing and consolation, both frustration and enticement. It is also the prism through which the Louse's experiences are understood. Each story that is told, whether from the Bible, oral tales, Cervantes or gossip, taps deep into the narrative traditions that animate all cultures. A marvellous and deeply immersive memoir." Ellen Boehmer, Professor of World Literature in English, University of Oxford

Robert Muponde is Professor of English in the School of Literature, Language and Media at the University of the Witwatersrand and the Wits Director of Postgraduate Affairs. He grew up in Rusape, Zimbabwe, and has lived in Johannesburg for the past twenty years. He is the author of Some Kinds of Childhood: images of history and resistance in Zimbabwean literature and Versions of Zimbabwe: new approaches to literature and culture.