efface i-ˈfās , e- verb
1. remove by or as if by rubbing or erasing
2. remove completely from recognition or memory
3. make inconspicuous
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The word efface has appeared in three articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on March 8 in the book review “A First Novel Explores Zimbabwe’s Troubled History” by Dinaw Mengestu:
Zamani, the narrator of Novuyo Rosa Tshuma’s remarkable first novel, “House of Stone,” has a troubled relationship with the past. For him there is history, and then there is “hi-story,” a subtle but important distinction for a man who wants more than the incomplete, fragmentary tale his uncle passed on to him before dying.
… It’s a remarkable feat. Through Zamani, Tshuma shows us how much work it takes to efface the past, and, through “House of Stone,” she proves that those efforts are no match for a novel as ambitious and ingenious as this one.
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