The Eternal Audience of One

March 1, 2021

A Rwanda-born Namibian writer/photographer short-listed for the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, Ngamije relates the story of young S�raphin, who fled the Rwandan civil war with his family; landed in Windhoek, Namibia, which his coolly aspirational self finds restrictive; and finally heads to Capetown, South Africa, where wild parties, racism, and a law degree await. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 7, 2021
A law student contends with his family and future prospects in this funny and incisive debut from Namibian writer Ngamije. In the weeks before 24-year-old Séraphin’s final year of law school in Cape Town, he visits his parents in Windhoek, Namibia, where they landed after fleeing Rwanda when Séraphin was nine, and where “the best thing to do... is arrive and leave.” Therése, his commanding, French-educated mother, still struggles with their reduced status as immigrants, while his father, Guillome, devotes himself to a low-paying job at a government agency. Back in South Africa, Séraphin hangs out with fellow students, squeaks by at school, and cycles through brief relationships with women while nursing his wounds from past relationships. After Andrew, the only white person in his group of friends, brings around his family friend Silmary, she and Séraphin begin sleeping together, leading to a dramatic fight with Andrew. Flashbacks and ruminations from Séraphin and his parents lead to a revelatory conclusion that impacts all of them, and create a vivid catalog of sorrows, embarrassments, and barely concealed hostilities, which Ngamije conveys through Séraphin’s sly commentary (his “weather report” for Cape Town: “Mild racism with scattered xenophobic showers. Watch out for house parties, folks!”). Fans of Brandon Taylor’s work will love this. Agent: Cecile Barendsma, Cecile B Literary.

August 1, 2021
S�raphin Turihamwe is bright and funny, but he's wracked by ennui. He hates Windhoek, the Namibian city his Rwandan refugee parents now call home. He's close to finishing law school in Cape Town, South Africa, but his heart is not in the vocation, and he struggles under the weight of his parents' lofty expectations. While settling in Cape Town might be tempting, deep-seated racism does not leave much room for people like S�raphin. Worse, he's not sure where he stands with the many young women he's been dating. Ngamije's debut maps S�raphin's restlessness as he tries to find a life purpose, touching on many weighty issues--the plight of Rwandan refugees, defying parental authority, racism in post-apartheid South Africa--but does so only glancingly. Like so many searching young men, S�raphin is a world citizen, reciting pop lyrics and dreaming of an existence beyond his confined boundaries. Ngamije's tale meanders inconclusively from one idea to the next, just as its protagonist remains directionless, thus missing a substantive hook even as it stands as an engaging and very promising bildungsroman.

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Starred review from August 1, 2021

DEBUT What is home for a Rwandan refugee who's living in Namibia while studying in South Africa? S�raphin Turihamwe, a young man searching for his authentic identity in this consequential coming-of-age novel, may be the most arresting fictional character readers will meet this year. Plagued by the expectations of his loving but intrusive family, aspiring writer S�raphin escapes the boredom of Windhoek for college in Cape Town, where he feels that he can breathe freely. Though he excels in his studies and acquires an eclectic posse of friends, he resents the remnants of apartheid's caste system, the daily onslaught of microaggressions that his lighter-skinned classmates blithely ignore. As the students compete for grades, girls, and standing among their peers, they ride a roller-coaster of emotions, from hilarity and fearfulness to love and anger to forgiveness and understanding. Yet it is the immigrant's search for a spiritual and physical home that drives S�raphin's romantic entanglements and his progression toward the law degree he never aspired to that imbues this poignant novel with such heart. VERDICT Another sparkling new talent emanating from the African continent, Rwandan Namibian Ngamije has been honored with the 2021 Regional Commonwealth Short Story Prize. With the broad release of this 2019 debut novel, he can now be embraced by the wider audience he so deserves.--Sally Bissell, formerly at Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.