Like very good dark
chocolate this is a delicious novel, with a bitter-sweet flavour. Vimbai
is a hairdresser, the best in Mrs Khumalo's salon, and she knows she is
the queen on whom they all depend. Her situation is reversed when the
good-looking, smooth-talking Dumisani joins them. However, his charm and
desire to please slowly erode Vimbai's rancour and when he needs
somewhere to live, Vimbai becomes his landlady. So, when Dumisani needs
someone to accompany him to his brother's wedding to help smooth over a
family upset, Vimbai obliges. Startled to find that this smart
hairdresser is the scion of one of the wealthiest families in Harare,
she is equally surprised by the warmth of their welcome; and it is their
subsequent generosity which appears to foster the relationship between
the two young people. The ambiguity of this deepening friendship - used
or embraced by Dumisani and Vimbai with different futures in mind -
collapses in unexpected brutality when secrets and jealousies are
exposed. Written with delightful humour and a penetrating eye, The
Hairdresser of Harare is a novel that you will find hard to put down.
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