The Leak

In this episodic novella, Mavima introduces Kuda, a man in his early 20s, living a banal existence shared by many of his peers in contemporary Harare. He has resigned himself to the life of mundane, inescapable drudgery. As he listlessly navigates the throes of early adulthood in urban Zimbabwe, Kuda worries that his existence may already have plateaued. When his US-based cousin Tawanda visits home for the first time in years, he provokes Kuda into seeking the escape from his entrapped life that had long eluded him. Their conversation sets in motion a series of events, memories, and encounters that leave Kuda with a new lease of life. Yet in his pursuit of greener pastures, he embarks on a surreal path where he is confronted with familial conflict, disease, dashed hopes, love and camaraderie in the strangest of places, and death.