What We Lose

(Paperback)

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Description

A short, intense and profoundly moving debut novel about race, identity, sex and death from one of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35

Thandi is a black woman, but often mistaken for Hispanic or Asian. She is American, but doesn't feel as American as some of her friends. She is South African, but doesn't belong in South Africa either.

Her mother is dying.

Both raw and artful, minimal yet rich, What We Lose is an intimate portrait of love and loss, and a fierce meditation on race, sex, identity, and staying alive.

Reviews

The debut novel of the year visceral, cerebral, provocative, elegiac. One cant help but think of Clemmons as in the running to be the next-generation Claudia Rankine Vogue

Luminescent Independent

A lovely little headrush of a novel if you enjoyed Yaa Gyasis Homegoing then try this Sunday Times Style

Bracingly clear-eyed the tension between her steady prose and turbulent emotions is beautifully sustained Daily Mail

Highly original. Zinzi Clemmons deftly explores grief, sex and identity Elle

Concise and powerful. This original and challenging debut is a must-read for fans of literary fiction and memoir Bookriot

Penetratingly good and written in vivid still life, What We Lose reads like a guided tour through a melancholic Van Gogh exhibit wonderfully chromatic, transfixing and bursting with emotion. Zinzi Clemmonss debut novel signals the emergence of a voice that refuses to be ignored Paul Beatty

What We Lose navigates the many registers of grief, love and injustice . . . acutely moving Margo Jefferson, author of Negroland

'I loved this beautiful, honest and entrancing meditation on love, loss and the relationships that enrich and complicate our lives Bernardine Evaristo

Author Bio

Zinzi Clemmons was raised in Philadelphia by a South African mother and an American father. Her writing has appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, the Paris Review Daily, Transition and elsewhere. She is a cofounder and former publisher of Apogee Journal and a contributing editor to Literary Hub. Clemmons lives in Los Angeles and teaches at the Colburn Conservatory and Occidental College.