Brittle Paper 100 Notable African Books of 2024

Intimate stories about Zimbabweans in moments of transition that force them to decide who they really are and choose the people they call their own.

Set in Toronto and Zimbabwe, the twelve elegant stories in Who Will Bury You? touch on themes of loss, identity, and inequality as they follow the lives of Zimbabweans who often feel like they are on the outside looking in. A mother and daughter navigate new relationship dynamics when the daughter comes out as a lesbian. Two sisters wonder what will hold them together after their grandmother’s death. A daughter tries to tell her father she loves him as she prepares to leave home for the first time. A journalist takes her grieving mother on a trip to report on girls who are allegedly being abducted by mermaids. A girl born to be the river god’s wife becomes a hero when chaos breaks out in the mighty Zambezi. A group of mothers discover just how far they are willing to go to protect their children during wartime.

Ephemeral yet beautifully satisfying, the stories in Chido Muchemwa's debut collection ask what makes people leave home, what makes them come back, and what keeps them there.

CHIDO MUCHEMWA is a Zimbabwean writer living in Toronto. Her work has appeared in Lolwe, Augur, Catapult, Baltimore Review, and PRISM international, among others. She has been shortlisted twice for the Short Story Day Africa Prize, and she was the winner of the 2022 Bridge Prize.

Chido Muchemwa's profile page

• Commended, Brittle Paper 100 Notable African Books of 2024

“An impressive and expansive collection.” — Kirkus (STARRED Review)