Penguin Random House and The Cheeky Natives invite you to the virtual launch of The Scandalous Times of a Book Louse by Robert Muponde.

The author of this magical coming-of-age tale in rural Zimbabwe will be in conversation with Alma-Nalisha Cele and Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane.

The event will be streamed live The Cheeky Natives’s Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

• Read an excerpt from The Scandalous Times of a Book Louse here

Event details

Date: Wednesday 22 July 2021
Time: 18:00 SAST
Facebook event

PRHSA and @CheekyNatives invite you to the virtual launch of The Scandalous Times of a Book Louse by Robert Muponde in conversation with Alma-Nalisha Cele and Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane on 22 July.

The event will be streamed live on @CheekyNatives Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. pic.twitter.com/wETQjVnyG5

— @PenguinBooksSA (@PenguinBooksSA) July 2, 2021

About the book

Ah, you’ve arrived. Sit down, please, and make yourself comfortable. There may not be much dinner tonight – Father is still out of work; Mother can’t do anything with those stunted maize plants in the stony ground – but at least you are here, in Gushure Village, home to unsurpassed raconteurs and the Guramatunhu family, who know that telling stories staves off hunger.

Surprise awaits at every turn: thoughts and conversations bloom into poems, political speeches and songs. You will find instructions for cooking a hare, for how to defend yourself when a dead snake is your enemy’s chosen weapon, how to speak in war tongues, how to compose a fist and aim it at a tree trunk, how to eliminate animal terrorism in a time of rabies, how to rehearse the body-viewing of a good-looking corpse, how to rock under flying okapis with The Double Shuffle, and how to practise your lovemaking technique on a woman drawn in the sand.

At a time when cooked ants constitute a feast, the future nevertheless holds abundant prospects for the boy who devours words. But there is an unexpected fork in the road for this book louse, and plenty of wondrous twists and shocking turns.

Hilarious, poetic and poignant, Robert Muponde’s vibrant coming-of-age story of Ronald Guramatunhu brings to life rural Zimbabwe from the Second Chimurenga to independence. There are malevolent mermaids, eccentric shamans, outrageous relatives, fearsome teachers, and men who transform into hippos in a tale that captures all the magic of childhood.

Categories Africa Non-fiction South Africa

Tags Alma-Nalisha Cele Book events Book launches Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane Penguin Random House SA Robert Muponde The Cheeky Natives The Scandalous Times of a Book Louse Virtual book events Virtual book launches