Book Club Guide

We Need New Names

by NoViolet Bulawayo · 2013 · Literary Fiction

Key themes

The childhood that was not a childhood — and the adult it produces
Immigration and the impossible choice between the country you left and the one you entered
The name — and the person it signals — that travels and changes

About this book

Darling grows up in Paradise, a Zimbabwean shantytown, stealing guavas and playing games with her friends, before being sent to live with her aunt in America. Bulawayo's debut novel follows Darling's immigration and assimilation — and her growing understanding of what she carried and what she left behind.

Published in 2013, We Need New Names was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction. Bulawayo grew up in Zimbabwe and moved to the US as a young adult.

Discussion questions

The novel splits between Zimbabwe and America. How does Bulawayo show Darling's transformation — and what specifically does she lose in the crossing?
The childhood section is told from within the child's perspective, with the specific mix of play and danger. What does this close-to-child narrative voice achieve?
The novel has been criticised for its portrayal of Zimbabwe as stereotypically African. How do you engage with this critique — and does it affect your reading of what Bulawayo is achieving?
The American section shows Darling assimilating while simultaneously failing to fully belong. What is Bulawayo saying about the specific condition of the African immigrant in America?
We Need New Names was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. What does it do that earns serious literary recognition alongside more formally conventional novels?