Glory by Noviolet Bulawayo

This book is short listed for the Booker Prize in 2022, and was inspired by George Orwell’s Animal Farm and is set in the animal kingdom of Jidada. I am not a fan of the original, nor am I really good at totally getting satire, so I am sure there is more to it than I grokked. The story goes that after a 40-year rule, the “Old Horse” is ousted in a coup, along with his much-despised wife, a donkey named Marvellous. At first there is great rejoicing and hope for change under a new ruling horse, Tuvius Delight Shasha (the former vice-president turned rival of Old Horse). Hope, however, quickly vanishes and into the period of post-coup despair steps a young goat named Destiny, who returns from exile to bear witness to a land where greed, corruption and false prophets are rampant. Elements of this story will sound familiar. In a note to the reader, Bulawayo explains that she attempted to write about Zimbabwe’s November 2017 coup and the fall of Robert Mugabe in nonfiction, but found a better form in political satire. There are a lot of elements of recent happenings in the United States and can also be read as a cautionary tale.