Digging Stars

Athandwa adores her brilliant father, Frank, an astronomer who does revolutionary work, blending Western and Indigenous science. Frank left Zimbabwe and his daughter for a career in New York City, but when political conditions in Zimbabwe deteriorate, he returns to escort the 11-year-old Athandwa to New York. On the way, he is killed in a car crash that, as it turns out, might not have been an accident. After Frank’s death, Athandwa falls victim to periodic psychosomatic seizures she calls “the Terrors.” She works hard to follow in her father’s footsteps, hoping to continue his work with Thomas Long, a space tourism entrepreneur, and is accepted to a prestigious interdisciplinary program sponsored by Long’s company. The program opens her eyes to an unsettling side of space colonization, causing her to rethink her goals and see her father in a new light. Tsuma (A Lesson in Englishness) raises political, social, ethnic, and economic issues while telling this story from Athandwa’s point of view. Narrator Nene Nwoko expertly delivers many different voices and accents, from Zimbabwean to Haitian to Southern American.