When eleven-year-old Chimuka and her younger brother Ali findthemselves orphaned in the 1990s, it's clear that their seeminglyordinary Zambian family is brimming with secrets: from HIV/AIDSto infidelity to suicide. Faced with the difficult choice of living withtheir abusive extended family or slithering into the dark underbelly ofLusaka's streets, Chimuka and Ali escape and become street kids.Against the backdrop of a failed military coup, election riots and adeclining economy, Chimuka and Ali are raised by drugs, crime andpolice brutality. As a teenager, Chimuka is caught between prostitutionand the remnants of the fragile stability from before her parents'death.The Mourning Bird is not just Chimuka's story, it's a national portraitof Zambia in an era of strife. With lively and unflinching prose,Kalimamukwento paints a country's burden, shame and silence that,when juxtaposed with Chimuka's triumph, forms an empoweringdebut novel.