Was a good motivation to get the book. I wish there are more authors/edition houses using such a way to entince the readers.

An intriguing extract, but not convinced I will buy the book. I understand its experimental, but I found the style and format of Animal Farm easier to follow, perhaps because I better understood the politics
thank you to netgalley and Random House for this extract.

It's difficult to review a book I have only read an extract of but it's a very intriguing and interesting snippet - I can't wait to read the rest of it.

I have seen this book in my store and when this sample popped up in my emails, I knew I had to request it!
I love the way this story has been told through animals and portrays humans and the events described in a very different light!
Will definitely be purchasing this one for myself so I can finish it!

Intriguing - interested in reading more. Thoroughly enjoyed the last novel by the same author. Experimental, but none the worse for that!

Thank you NetGalley for the extract

I really loved this extract and will definitely buy the book to wallow in this terrific reimagining of life under a dictator of forty years.

it's an interesting exctract and I'm curious about the book which should be intriguing
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Thanks for approving this! A perfect little extract - will buy the full book now & keep fingers crossed for the Booker

After reading We Need New Names by Bulawayo earlier this year and loving it, I was extremely excited to get a taste of their new novel in this sample.
I’d heard so many people talk about this book as ‘like Orwell’s Animal Farm’ and I was intrigued from the get go, but sadly I think this book falls a little short.

I found the style of writing very unusual and slightly confusing, and whilst the plot sounds interesting im not sure it’s a book I’ll enjoy.

Overall 2 stars. May or may not give the full version a go in the future

I had heard lots about this but did not feel it brought much more to the story. It was still alright though.

Only read the extract but enough to convince me this is not for me. Too wordy. I loved Orwell's 'Animal Farm' but that was written in a much tighter and better considered style for me. Shame because this could have been good but just too drawn out & needlessly overcomplicated.

Interesting extract - reminds me of Animal Farm in ways. I do wish I had the full ARC to fully articulate my thoughts and give a more thorough review. But I will definitely read the full novel!

With ‘Glory’ by NoViolet Bulawayo being shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize for Fiction, Random House U.K. Vintage Chatto & Windus has offered this 34-page extract via NetGalley.

‘Glory’ is set in the fictional African country of Jidada, which is populated by animals. Since the European colonisers were ousted almost forty years ago, the country has been led by the ‘Old Horse’. While he considers himself President for Life and Father of the Nation, he is about to be overthrown himself.

It is fairly obvious that ‘Glory’ is a fable in the tradition of ‘Animal Farm’ and is a thinly veiled political satire about the 2017 coup in Zimbabwe and the fall of Robert Mugabe.

Literary fiction is by its nature often challenging and satire, whether general or political, even more so. In addressing the subject in this form, I felt that NoViolet Bulawayo had granted herself more freedom than might be have been possible in a more traditional account of the period. In addition, satire allows for universal themes linked to politics, no matter the nation, to be explored.

Certainly this extract has whetted my appetite for the entire novel.

<b>This review is of a 34-page extract received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</b>

Obviously, it is extremely hard to offer a full review of a book based on just 30 pages. However, I would say that I was certainly intrigued by what I read of the opening. The book appears to be a very interesting satirical allegory and I was immediately caught up in the action that was both familiar and yet fantastical. Based on what I read of this extract, I am certainly keen to go on and read the rest of the book in the future if I get the opportunity. I am giving this extract 4 stars, pending my further thoughts if I do manage to read the rest later.

(Given this was only a review, I have just shared my thoughts on Goodreads for the time being. If I go on to read the full text, I will then amend the Goodreads review and share on my blog and other social media platforms too.)

An African 1984. This extract doesn't make me want to read the rest of the book. It's clearly a satire of an African regime, but I don't know enough about African politics to understand the references, unlike George Orwell's famous 1984, satirising Russian politics. Why was a horse chosen as the failing leader? They are thought of as intelligent, trainable animals. Orwell's pigs were fat on the proceeds of Communism as most of the real Russian leaders were in the 1940s. Not for me.

For me this felt like walking through treacle, if the rest of the book is like this I don't think I would make it to the end. I must confess that I only understood what was going on, on a basic level, maybe I need to understand a lot more background (Mugabe regime) to make this click. A religious undertone (which normally loses me anyway) and descriptions of anthropomorphized animal characters that I found neither engaging nor fun made a boring and distracted read. Not sure whether it's just me or the book, but it definitely won't be on my TBR pile.

This extract gives a good idea of the rest of the book. It is the spectacular opening scene of an Independence Day rally in Jidada where the now senile Father of the Nation, Old Horse, once more addresses the crowd. As the book goes on the focus will shift away from the animals and focus more on politics and the impacts of decades of dictatorship in Zimbabwe and it remains fascinating. But this opening scene is one of the most engaging I read in a long time.