In the 1990s, Yvonne Vera wrote garden letters to friends, lovers, and readers of Bulawayo’s Chronicle newspaper. They were literary meditations, writings that questioned if the myth of the garden could be hijacked from its colonial origins and used to restore a sacred relationship with nature for Black people. In this monograph, Tadiwa Madenga travels to Bulawayo to retrace Yvonne Vera’s life and works through her letters, columns, novels, gallery curations, and her former homes. It is a story written for those who love gardens and those who seek to trespass them.

decomposed, anarranged and reproduced by Chimurenga