A wrenching love story and literary debut following two strangers whose paths converge in a series of seemingly chance encounters and shared histories, perfect for readers of Jesmyn Ward, NoViolet Bulawayo, and Yaa Gyasi.
On a bus moving across rural landscapes from town to town, two young people are escaping with nothing to hold except hope. She has committed a horrifying act for which there will certainly be retribution. He is staggering from a devastating discovery. They will find each other and attempt to move forward, even as their grief leaves wounds on their new beginnings.
Seamlessly transitioning between past lives and present realities, The Ones We Loved tenderly weaves both myth and memory into an account of two people desperate for connection and yearning for a place to belong. They will find sunflowers carrying death, rivers that whisper secrets and trees that will see it all.
The Ones We Loved is told in the rhythms of oral retellings practiced in Zimbabwe, where a ngano (story)—its melodies, pauses and lifts—creates a call-and-response with the audience. It is a breathtakingly beautiful story about the homes we leave behind, the lonely voices that find us and the painful consequences of experiencing a love that has never known how to let go.
BIO
Tarisai Ngangura is a journalist andphotographer. Born and raised in Zimbabwe, she completed her post-secondaryeducation at what was then Ryerson University in Canada. Reporting from Brazil,Canada and the US, her essays and interviews have appeared in RookieMag, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Lapham’sQuarterly and the Globe and Mail. Previously at VanityFair, Ngangura currently splits her time between Toronto andManhattan. The Ones We Loved is her debut novel.
REVIEWS
“If Toni Morrison is a language, Tarisai Ngangura speaks it as well as any novelist writing today. In a magnificent novel, that seethes with beauty, passion and rage, Ngangura contemplates how to embrace a history composed of love and devastating pain.” -- Donna Bailey Nurse, literary critic and journalist
"The Ones We Loved is a literary cat burglar. Steals your breath. Makes off with your time before you see it gone. Pockets your heart and hands it back—rewired. Tarisai Ngangura has penned a haunting, unforgettable story about a shattered girl and a shattered boy rebuilding their lives on the thinnest reeds of hope." -- Lawrence Hill, award-winning author of The Book of Negroes
[H] Park Row / May 06, 2025
1.1" H x 9.2" L x 6.3" W (0.9 lbs) 304 pages