We have full spoilers for the June 2018 Boxwalla Book Box!
This June we showcase two writers, one from Zimbabwe and one from Australia, along with an artist from Luxembourg.
Spoiler 1
The first writer we feature is Zimbabwean writer Tsi Tsi Dangarembga and her modern classic (and debut novel) : Nervous Conditions. Published in 1988 in the U.K., it was the first book to be published in English by a black Zimbabwean woman.
Nervous Conditions, the name inspired by a quote by Jean-Paul Sartre, is an English novel about a Shona family in post-colonial Rhodesia. The Shona people are a group of ethnic Bantu people native to Zimbabwe. While this is essentially a novel about a family in post colonial Zimbabwe, Dangarembga with an uncanny skill (she was only 28 when this was published), manages to illuminate, with just the events in the family, the turbulent politics, of race and gender at play in the society at large, not just in Zimbabwe, but all over Africa and the world.
Spoiler 2
The second writer we feature is Australian writer Gerald Murnane and his masterpiece Barley Patch. NY Times called Murnane “the greatest living English-language writer most people have never heard of”.
Barley Patch starts off as a unique exploration of why an author might abandon the act of writing fiction. It provides insight into the relationship between what is written and how it is read, ultimately becoming a window into the act of both writing and imagining all that happens in a work of fiction.
Spoiler 3
In this box, we also showcase the work of Luxembourg based artist : Marion Desssan.
When we look at Marion’s pieces, we feel like we are looking through many moving windows at things that shift and change. And isn’t the experience of reading a book very like that? Especially the ones in the June box, to which Marion’s art provides an interesting counterpoint.
Marion has autism and has often been denied opportunities because of this, including the right to many basic things that so many of us take for granted, like finishing middle & high school. Yet, over the years she has worked hard at pursuing her interests, including learning a language all by herself (Japanese, as she loves Japan ). She has worked for years on developing her own unique technique in art & counts as her influences, artists of the 19th and 20th century – from Gauguin to Basquiat. She dreams of achieving independence through her art.
Each June Book Box will contain a 6×4 print by Marion, on thick 260 g paper, that is artisanally printed, individually numbered & stamped with Marion’s signature.
Last day to subscribe to the June Book Box is June 5, 11:59 p.m PST
What do you think of this month’s Boxwalla Book Box spoilers?
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