For a girl that grew up in railway towns, this took me back in time and I LOVED it. In so many ways it was like I was chatting with an old friend about our lives experiences. The water creatures, the childhood crushes, and just the general mischief and naïveté of our youth as kids. I miss that and I realize now that it was good times.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this novel, however, all thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

I have to admit that I don't think that I'm really the "correct reader" for this book. However, I'm really happy that I picked it up and decided to stick with it. The author wove together an interesting narrative that mixed non-fiction, magical realism, and literary fiction. Add a dash of government critique and it made for a really unique read. Jedza and Natsai were two different and distinctive narrators, but I have to admit to sort of plowing through Jedza's chapters and flying through Natsai's. I was much more interested in what was going on in her chapters.

That being said, I enjoyed the sort of mystery aspect to Natsai's disappearance, the glimpses into Shona spirituality, and the author's footnotes. The footnotes added so much to the experience, but also information, which was really important to me as someone not very familiar with either Zimbabwe, it's history and culture, or literary traditions. I sort of wish that other authors would consider this. I know that footnotes may be a make or break aspect for some readers, but they work really well here and serve a purpose.

Overall, I would recommend this for readers interested in reading a book to become slightly more familiar with Zimbabwe, sibling narratives, magical realism, train town people, and readers looking to step outside their own lives and culture. I think, if it doesn't already exist, the author needs to create a Spotify playlist for this book because there are so many references to music and artists throughout this and it would be a lot of fun to have. I look forward to seeing what is next for Farai Mudzingwa.

I am not familiar with a lot of Zimbabwean history, but this seems to have taken a lot of non fiction things and threaded itself beautifully in this interesting book. A mix of magical realism, fantasy and literary fiction.
The book sucks you in to the surroundings of our alternating narrators.
It has beautiful prose. The pacing is slow, and sometimes the story is a bit surreal. The book has a heavy, melancholy mood to it. One of the few books I have read where I couldn’t guess what was coming next.
Monogamy doesn’t seem to be very important, and the book revolves around lot around base physical urges and supplying the option to please men. There are sex workers in this book as well as alcohol and drug abuse.
I highly recommend this. I also loved all the footnotes by the author, sharing historic moment that influenced a scene. It felt like reading the book with the author.

incredibly unique, imaginative and haunting! love me some magical realism. really enjoyed the prose and the storyline, loved Jezda. excited to tell folks about this one and would be glad to share a review once I get my physical copy :)

thanks netgalley!

In Farai Mudzingwa’s stunning new novel, Jedza moves through two worlds in parallel—the physical and the spiritual, and also the small world of Miner’s Drift and, later, the larger world of Harare. It’s a bildungsroman: we meet Jedza as a lovable and irrepressible boy in Miner’s Drift, up to small boy things with his little crew (and, very memorably, a little running away from home with his dog, Spider). When the unthinkable happens, Jedza is forever marked and haunted by forces far beyond his knowledge or ability to deal with.

These hauntings follow him to Harare, where he tries to piece together the life of a Zimbabwean adult—with some success, but feeling that true happiness and freedom evade him. He’s caught up in the twilight zone of Harare’s precarity—less so for him, in some ways, than for those his life is intertwined with. Mudzingwa portrays this beautifully: Harare’s shadow life in the Avenues—the sex workers, the guys high on drugs and selling airtime at the street corners, the maize sellers, the old woman selling cigarettes and sweets at the corner—and life south of Samora in Chenga Ose, with its malaise, broken sewers, and hand-to-mouth existence. In all of this, above everything, it’s community that holds lives together.

Underneath, though, that second world—the one of hauntings—never leaves Jedza. His sister, Natsai, also moved to Harare’s Avenues some years ago, before disappearing mysteriously—although she is not truly gone. In the novel, Shona cosmology (with touches of more generic “African” beliefs) is the brilliant, sparkling web of existence, that you can just see through the corner of your eye if you turn your head quickly. Jedza comes to believe he cannot find peace without confronting what haunts him, and gradually becomes aware of how he might find answers. In the climactic scene, he attends a bira on the edge of town where he comes face-to-face with the truth of his identity and with the long line connecting him to the ancient past, bringing him hope for freedom.

Mudzingwa proves himself a true svikiro (spirit medium), channelling the voice of a people, the Shona, through their son Jedza. This voice is plaintive, in mourning for all that has been lost through colonialism, in the loss of a connection to its children and the land. You’ve heard it: it haunts us in the music of Zimbabwe, and in the struggles of its people. That pain comes through in Mudzingwa’s exceptional novel, leaving the reader feeling haunted too.

Thank you to Cassava Republic Press and NetGalley for access to an ARC of Avenues by Train.

This book is exceptional. I'm 25% of the way through and have pre-ordered. Poetic, jarring and thought-provoking so far.

This is true literary fiction and quite complex. I don't feel I can do it justice in digital format so will share my updated review and tiktok post once the book arrives.

Until then this remains my only site review.

On the surface, a magical realist story set in Zimbabwe, following young Gerry as he moves from his small town to the capital Harare, running away from memories of childhood trauma. As Gerry struggles to run away from himself, his past and his role in it gradually catch up with him, as he oscillates between the secular world of Zimbabwean economy, and the world of local spirits.

On another level, the book is a thoughtful and nuanced critique of the Zimbabwean regime, at least as complex and thought provoking (albeit perhaps less allegorical) as Wizard of the Crow. In some ways, albeit a different genre, it reminds me of Age of Vice, because both books choose to point a finger at the failings of the respective governments via small and arguably quotidian moments in the lives of their protagonists. In Avenues by Train, the author also helpfully intercedes with carefully placed footnotes, which elucidate and provide colour on the points he is trying to make in the text (for those who, perhaps, are less familiar with the world of Zimbabwe).

The book is incredibly thoughtfully written, and all the characters are all vivid and emotive. The circumstances they find themselves in are gut-wrenching, and despite the moral opacity it is hard to criticise even someone like Loveness.

The writing is distinctly non-Western, and it shows in the style, the thin line between fact and the world of the spirits, and the types of relationships between our protagonists. The pacing is unrelenting, and the intersection between personal, political, and psychological intrigue is sophisticate and enticing.

Recommend to anyone interested in Africa, and anyone interested in new and creative voices coming from the continent.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this novel in return for an honest review.

This novel tells the story of two children as they grow up in present day Zimbabwe . One of the children witnesses, a horrific death of one of his friends in a train crash the author looks at how this is affected him as he grows up
I found it hard to get into this book initially there’s a lot of prayers and magical reality that didn’t make sense to me.at first
When we are introduced to the child, characters of the story, the novel becomes instantly more real and believable and I started to enjoy the story more.
The elements of the book that I felt was less strong were the magical reality elements where the author uses ancient African legend myth and religion .
I was unsure about the footnotes , they’re interesting, but are written in a different voice than the rest of the novel almost as if the author themselves were commenting on their own writing.
The story flits between time periods and also the narrator varies frequently.I found myself getting a bit confused who I was reading about from time to time.
The author has an easily read prose style, which was a pleasure to read
I read an early copy of the novel on NetGalley, UK the book is published in the UK on the 26th of September 2023 by Cassava Republic
This review will appear on NetGalley, UK good reads and my bookblog bionicsarahsbooks.wordpress.com. After publication, it will also appear on Amazon, UK.

The author's notes were my favourite part of Avenues by Train. They reminded me that no government or people have a monopoly on mediocrity and rubbish audacity. They made me laugh, they made me sad. They are a very important part of the story IMO.

DNF - I don't think there is anything wrong with this story, this is simply a case of not being the right reader for the material. I'm sure it will get into the hands of readers who will be able to love it for all that it is.

A sprawling novel of grief and the haunting of the past. I enjoyed this a lot, it’s not something I typically go for and so I was pleasantly surprised.