Quote by Yvonne Vera: “The past does not disappear, it lies under the skin of the present.”

This means that historical events and traumas aren't simply forgotten; they continue to influence and shape current realities, deeply affecting people and societies in subtle and profound ways.

'The Stone Virgins' directly confronts the painful history of political violence in Zimbabwe, illustrating how unresolved historical wounds continue to manifest in contemporary lives and relationships.

Zimbabwean novelist whose lyrical and often disturbing fiction addressed silence, violence, and the interior lives of Zimbabwean women. Her 1994 novel Nehanda drew on the life of the spirit medium who led the First Chimurenga uprising against British colonisation. She received the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Africa and died in Toronto at forty in 2005.