The Toppling

<p class=ql-align-justify><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Toppling</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> is Cynthia Marangwanda's highly anticipated follow-up to her award-winning novella </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Shards</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>. At its heart is Mamoyo a spirit medium who has always regarded her gift as a curse. But when a ghost from the colonial past begins to haunt her she is thrust into a perilous journey that forces her to reconsider everything she thought she knew. As Mamoyo battles forces more powerful than she could have imagined the struggle extends far beyond her own survival to the very future of her country. Steeped in history and spirituality The Toppling lays bare the unhealed wounds of a nation in crisis while weaving a story of resistance reckoning and resilience. With her signature artistry and unflinching vision Marangwanda delivers a gripping narrative that refuses to be put down.</span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>~Lazarus Panashe Nyagwambo author and editor</strong></p><p class=ql-align-justify></p><p class=ql-align-justify><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>It is folly to think you can challenge a behemoth and come out victorious...or even alive. </em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>When MaMoyo wakes from a desperate fever dream it seems she is simply battling sleep paralysis but as her story unfolds straddling Zimbabwe's history and current state material and spiritual it becomes clear that MaMoyo is on a quest to save her nation from itself. MaMoyo finally faces down its chief architect and battles this principality for the future of the next generation. </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Toppling</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> is a brief yet weighty narrative that forces a nation to interrogate what it is and how it became that. Marangwanda handles this work with great boldness and authority.</span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>~Tariro Ndoro author and poet</strong></p><p class=ql-align-justify></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In Cynthia Marangwanda's </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Toppling</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> just like in her first offering </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Shards</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> </span><span style=color: rgba(0 29 53 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>a terrible beauty is born... </span><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>simultaneously horrifying and aesthetically pleasing evoking a mixture of awe fear and admiration</span><span style=color: rgba(0 29 53 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>.</span><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> Marangwanda still has the same incredible ability to turn history inside out. On meeting Cecil John Rhodes in an out of body experience a young woman embarks on a whole quest to right the wrongs from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe.  </span></p><p class=ql-align-justify><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>~</span><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Memory Chirere author and poet</strong></p><p class=ql-align-justify></p>