Tarisai Ngangura is a journalist originally from Zimbabwe, whose writing has appeared in Rookie Mag, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Lapham’s Quarterly, and the Globe and Mail. Now, her debut novel The Ones We Loved has hit bookstores. The debut is about two young strangers fleeing personal tragedy who find solace in each other while traversing a haunted landscape of grief, memory, and myth. Rooted in Zimbabwean storytelling traditions, the novel explores love, exile, and the enduring human search for belonging.
We asked the writer to answer our recurring My Reading Life questionnaire so readers could get to know her and the books that shaped her life better.
What was the first book you were obsessed with as a child?
Probably Captured by Raiders by Benjamin S. Wegesa. I recently re-read it and realized it’s actually quite a fast read, but when I was young it was such a long adventure.
What book helped you through puberty?
I don’t know if I can say that there are particular books which helped me through puberty; chances are likely that I read a lot of books during this time so I wouldn’t have had to think about puberty. The Hardy Boys were a staunch favorite because the stories were always reliably crafted—mystery is discovered, investigation starts, hijinks follow, mystery is solved— and excitement was a guarantee. I was also very obsessed with The Animorphs series and read all the books that my primary school had in stock. Once I had made my way through them, I started over from the first one. As narratives they were quite foundational for me because they completely collapsed the barrier between humans and animals, the past and present while also letting teenagers be gawky, petulant, scared, recklessly ambitious and deeply loyal to each other. I also loved how the covers were designed in a way that you could gradually see the characters morphing into animals. I’ve never read another series like it, and I am grateful that I found them during such a formative time in my life.
What book do you think all teenagers should be assigned in school?
I mean, I think before assigning books in school, it’s necessary to cultivate a very genuine love for reading. Sure, children will read the books when assigned and complete the required assignments, but it would be incredible if reading was also a practice they did outside of class, and which they truly enjoy. As someone who grew up surrounded by books because my father was a journalist and my mother wrote short stories, I can’t imagine not enjoying the act of reading, but I do understand that it is not an inherent act, even though for myself it might feel that way.
I’ve lived in different countries that all possess varied relationships to literature within their cultures, so whatever books are assigned to children should, I suppose, widen their interests beyond their own worlds, and illustrate how boundless the imagination can be. Ultimately books are doorways and everyone should have the right to enter in whatever way they can. This could look like a series of young adult novels, stacked paperbacks of “beach reads,” the coming-of-age novels, oral storytelling, and those grand, epic books that cross time periods and generations of families.
If you were to teach a class on Damn Good Writing, what books would make the syllabus?
I am going to assume that I am teaching the class in English and so in that case there would be quite a few translated works on the syllabus. And if the works are not fully translated, I would highlight excerpts and build a discussion from there. Although I can read books in several languages, translating them with fidelity and rigor for a class is not a skill I have, so I’d also reach out to translators within my circle who can help me do it well.
Casa de Alvenaria by Carolina Maria de Jesus – A captivating and moving diary that traces the author’s life after the publication of her first book, which was also a diary. This particular one does a great job of showing how destabilizing and odd success can be, and it’s also quite an intimate look at her state of mind.
Crisálidas by Machado de Assis – There’s real elegance and beauty in this poetry collection as the author writes about grief’s startling capacity to clarify our desires and fears. When reading the poems, the feelings of loss are so profound in ways I didn’t expect. It’s as though he was trying to prepare his readers for their own inevitable deaths and those of their loved ones, while still working through the pain he was experiencing.
Love by Toni Morrison – Until I read this book, I don’t think I’d read work that portrayed how loving others is both overwhelmingly futile and exquisitely necessary. The characters are so sharply rendered and so is the way they love. It’s just beautiful.
Rurimi Inyoka by Giles Kuimba – A book about how family members can fail us even when they truly think they are acting from a place of care and caution. The portrayal of rural life and city life is also incredibly well done.
The House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera – A short story collection that is expansive, even within the confines of the genre. The stories are so elastic and the way of writing so precise.
The Suit by Can Themba – A short story that starts off with bright romance and ends in death. The world-setting and build up is ridiculously good.
Chanson Douce by Leïla Slimani – The book is a snatched from the headlines murder-mystery that starts with the climax, and reveals the whodunnit immediately. And yet that’s not what the story is about, and it’s discovering the lead up to this final moment that makes the book so worthwhile.
Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K.Jemisin – I didn’t shut up about this trilogy for months after I read it, and here I am years later, still not shutting up. The shifts between times and characters, between characters as their past selves and their future selves is incredibly done. The pacing was so assured and the worlds are so well-made that this trilogy does not ever lose steam. Until the final page of the last book, it just doesn’t let up.
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga – A painfully tender coming of age story that also follows a previously colonized country as it works to rebuild and reshape itself. When reading the book we follow characters who are working to feel at home not only in their own bodies, but also in their own country.
What books helped guide you while writing your book?
A friend of mine gave me a copy of If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English around the time when I was basically done with my writing and revising. Yet reading it was still quite revelatory because the way that the author, Noor Naga, approached the art and form of writing is really innovative, and it just blew me away. It also made me really excited to be a writer, in the way I imagine musicians feel when they hear another musician perform at a high level. It was inspiring and beautiful to read her work.
What books are on your nightstand now?
Honestly, my own galley lol. Looking at it, and getting to touch the pages never quite gets old. And I also have Nikki Giovanni’s Love Poems, because I’ve been thinking of her.