In this chapter, we propose a reading of ‘Copacabana, Copacabana, Copacabana’ in Petina Gappah’s Rotten Row (2016) based on the concept of linguistic imaging. Imaging in this context is used to refer to how the author wants readers to imagine the city, perceive and experience it. We argue that unlike previous readings of Gappah’s short stories that have principally focused on crisis and migration, our study focuses on Gappah’s use of language to map the city of Harare. She creates an image of the city using language. It is crucial to point out that Gappah’s fiction thrives at the level of language use (hers and her characters’) to create a cartographic outline of the city’s physical and social landscape, including its interaction with other cities on the globe. In describing Harare using its language, Gappah is not only decentring English but also demonstrating how Harare is not, in fact, a counterpoint of London or New York.