A scintillating allegory of anthropomorphic uprising with echoes of Animal Farm, the second novel from the author of We Need New Names incisively captures the destructive cycle of corrupting power and relentless tyranny.
Shortlisted for The Booker Prize 2022
Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2023
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023
Glory is an energy burst, an exhilarating joyride. It is the story of an uprising, told by a bold, vivid chorus of animal voices that helps us see our human world more clearly.
A long time ago, in a bountiful land not so far away, the animal denizens lived quite happily. Then the colonisers arrived. After nearly a hundred years, a bloody War of Liberation brought new hope for the animals - along with a new leader. A charismatic horse who commanded the sun and ruled and ruled and kept on ruling. For forty years he ruled, with the help of his elite band of Chosen Ones, a scandalously violent pack of Defenders and, as he aged, his beloved and ambitious young donkey wife, Marvellous.
But even the sticks and stones know there is no night ever so long it does not end with dawn. And so it did for the Old Horse, one day as he sat down to his Earl Grey tea and favourite radio programme. A new regime, a new leader. Or apparently so. And once again, the animals were full of hope...
Glory tells the story of a country seemingly trapped in a cycle as old as time. And yet, as it unveils the myriad tricks required to uphold the illusion of absolute power, it reminds us that the glory of tyranny only lasts as long as its victims are willing to let it. History can be stopped in a moment. With the return of a long-lost daughter, a #freefairncredibleelection, a turning tide - even a single bullet.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781784744298
Number of pages: 416
Weight: 648 g
Dimensions: 240 x 162 x 37 mm
Allegory, satire and fairytale rolled into one mighty punch - Guardian
Brave, and moving - Stuart Kelly, Scotsman
Vital and universal - Hepzibah Anderson, Observer
Few writers can engineer a sentence like NoViolet Bulawayo - Irish Times
Bulawayo is really out-Orwelling Orwell. This is a satire with sharper teeth, angrier, and also very, very funny - New York Times Book Review
Glory revels in the absurd but offers a terrifying vision of political disintegration for readers today - Financial Times Summer Reads of 2022*
An urgent and engaging meditation on the farce of totalitarianism and the struggle of those who live under it to forge something better - i
Glory is a witty and moving tribute to the people of Zimbabwe and their history - Literary Review
Bulawayo broaches what it means to fight for democracy and call somewhere home in a timely and imaginative way . . . A memorable, funny and yet serious allegory about a country's plight under tyranny and what individual and collective freedom means in an age of virtual worlds and political soundbites - Franklin Nelson, Financial Times
It delivers, over the course of 400 pages of wordplay and animal magic, a surprisingly warm, intimate and, yes, human feeling - Melissa Katsoulis, The Times
You thought you were getting a novel as good as We Need New Names . . . Glory is even more dazzling . . . Calls to mind other great storytellers such as Herta Müller, Elif Shafak and Zimbabwean compatriot Yvonne Vera - Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Guardian
Bulawayo's tale of dictatorship and oppression explores the exaltation and downfall of a would-be savior - The 50 Most Anticipated Books of 2022, Oprah Daily
Robert Mugabe is there in all but name in this striking allegory - an Animal Farm that shows how narratives of liberation and self-determination curdle under a dictator's power - Fiction to Look Out For in 2022, Guardian
Inspired by George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Glory is set in the animal kingdom of Jidada. After 40 years ruling, ‘Old Horse’ is ousted in a coup with his much despised wife, a donkey named Marvellous. This is in fact the... More
Glory is set in the fictional African country of Jidada. It is quite clearly Zimbabwe. The main African languages spoken are Shona and Ndebele. There is a place called Bulawayo. There is a Sally Mugabe hospital.... More
When I stumbled upon this book, I picked it up for the interesting design on the front but was immersed in it because of one of the wittiest and best political satires I have seen in a while. Everyone respects Animal... More
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