A Girl Named Disaster
| Author | Nancy Farmer |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Deborah Kaplan and Robert Hunt |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's novel |
| Publisher | Orchard Books |
Publication date | September 1996 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 320 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-531-09539-8 (first edition, hardback) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| OCLC | 34513315 |
A Girl Named Disaster is a 1996 novel by Nancy Farmer. In 1997, Farmer won the Newbery Honor for the novel, which was also a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. The book explores the qualities needed to survive in a hostile environment (particularly by a woman), coming-of-age and the availability of spiritual guidance.
Synopsis
Nhamo is an 11-year old Shona girl living in a traditional village located in Mozambique (1981). She was raised with the knowledge and customs of her tribe, but because scandal seemed to follow her and her mother, she was named "Disaster" in the Shona language. After experiencing trouble with a cholera epidemic, a ghost leopard, and a prescribed marriage proposed by a false witch doctor, she flees with her dying grandmother's blessings, some gold nuggets, and her meager survival skills. Nhamo steals a boat under her grandmother's instructions and uses the river as her road to Zimbabwe, where she faces the threat of hippos, crocodiles, and other animals while dealing with the pressures of becoming a woman.
What should have been a two-day boat trip across the border to her father's family in Zimbabwe spans a year in which Nhamo faces starvation and the threat of hungry or aggressive animals. The girl finds her way to a lush, haunted island and lives alongside a troop of baboons. Daily conversations with spirits combat Nhamo's loneliness and provide her with sage and practical advice. She makes mistakes, loses heart, and nearly dies of starvation. Even after she arrives in Zimbabwe where she lives with scientists before meeting her father's family, Nhamo must learn how to live in a modern society (clothing, behavior, literacy), and is urged to let go of the "evil" spirits that "possess" her as prescribed by a priest.
Characters
- Nhamo Jongwe: The girl named "disaster". She got her name due to the many disasters she faces during her life, even as a child. However, Nhamo is resourceful and clever, in spite of the bad luck she supposedly causes.
- Aunt Chipo: Nhamo's bad tempered aunt, who has resented Runako, Nhamo's deceased mother and Chipo's older sister, since they were children. She has hated Nhamo and her mother ever since she was born and forces her to do most of the work in the village, allowing her daughter, Masvita, to do the less strenuous tasks.
- Masvita: Nhamo's sweet tempered cousin, who behaves respectfully towards Nhamo, in spite of how mean-spirited her mother is.
- Aunt Shuvai: Nhamo's younger aunt. She is considerably more ambivalent to Nhamo.
- Uncle Kufa: Nhamo's uncle and Aunt Chipo's husband. He is a pragmatic man.
- Ruva: Masvita's youngest sister.
- Ambuya: Nhamo and Masvita's grandmother. She treats Nhamo with respect and loves her dearly, and is one of the few people to do so. Chipo resents her mother, believing that Ambuya favoured Runako (Nhamo's mother) for doing well in school and Shuvai, who was the youngest of Ambuyo's three daughters.
- Sister Glady's"": A nun that takes care of Nhamo later in the book
See also
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (January 2012) |