North American book rights to Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s fourth novel, a work of literary fiction using gothic tropes and titled THE CREATION OF HALF-BROKEN PEOPLE, have been won by House of Anansi Press. Anansi is a fiercely independent publisher based in Toronto who has published stellar names like Matt Cohen, Michael Ondaatje, Northrop Frye, Austin Clarke, Harold Sonny Ladoo, Daphne Marlatt, Roch Carrier, and Margaret Atwood (who also worked for the press as an editor).

Editor Shivaun Hearne acquired the book, saying: “I loved it right away. I was particularly taken by the way Siphiwe weaves the threads of a complex colonial history into the present through the ancestors inhabiting the visions of an anonymous woman. The sort of madness-inflected narrative sparked by this intangible inheritance reminds me of Jean Rhys, yes, but also of writers from my native Jamaica, such as Erna Brodber (also a Windham-Campbell Prize winner, and an author I’ve worked with) and Michelle Cliff. This is the sort of book I want to press on friends as soon as I’ve read it!”

Ndlovu’s THE CREATION OF HALF-BROKEN PEOPLE tells the tale of a nameless woman plagued by visions of various women. She works for the Good Foundation and its museum, a place filled with artefacts from the family’s various explorations in Africa, the family Good’s members all being descendants of Captain John Good, of KING SOLOMON’S MINES fame.

The novel explores how the continent’s past continues to haunt its present and examines the collusion of colonialism, patriarchy and capitalism in creating and normalising a certain kind of womanhood. Literary sleuths will find the book in conversation with Charlotte Bronte’s JANE EYRE, Daphne du Maurier’s REBECCA, and Toni Morrison’s BELOVED.

The deal was negotiated by Fourie Botha of The Lennon-Ritchie Agency. For more information, email info@lennonliterary.com.