How long does it take to read Zenzele?
J. Nozipo Maraire
Zenzele by J. Nozipo Maraire takes about 3 hours 33 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 3 hours 33 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1996. 194 pages, about 53,350 words.
8 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 5 hours 56 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 3 hours 33 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 13 minutes |
The page count is the median across 11 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
In an extraordinary literary debut - written as a letter from a Zimbabwean mother to her daughter, a student at Harvard - J. Nozipo Maraire transforms the lessons of life into a lyrical narrative. Interweaving history and memories, disappointments and dreams, like the tales of the traditional village storyteller, this letter is a gift from one generation to the next. As her daughter enters a new world, a mother shares the riches of her own through stories of her personal experiences and those of her generation. She writes of Zimbabwe's struggle for independence, and of the men and women who shaped it: Zenzele's father, an outspoken activist lawyer; her aunt, a schoolteacher by day and a secret guerrilla fighter by night; and her cousin, a maid and spy. Each parable is a shrewd and quite often humorous tale interwoven to form a compelling and powerful story. Every character is a revelation and each story a revolution. Zenzele is for anyone who has ever loved and lost, fought and won. It is a complex tale wherein lies a simple truth: Respect the individual but understand what is vital to the whole.
Subjects: Fiction, Mothers and daughters, Women, Fiction, historical, general, Mothers and daughters, fiction, Africa, fiction
