Description

Sindiwe Magona · 2016

This is the story of Shumikazi, the only surviving child of Jojo and Miseka. She grows up in a small village nestling among the rolling hills of the Eastern Cape during the days of white rule – from the outside, an apparently unremarkable life. And yet Shumi is marked for extraordinary things from the moment of her birth. But then she faces an unspeakable betrayal that changes everything. Wry, tragic, funny, scathing, this rich new novel from Sindiwe Magona, one of South Africa’s most beloved storytellers, underscores the dignity of those often rendered invisible. Her characters crackle with life and verve as they step into the centre of the national narrative in Magona’s skilled hands.

A powerful meditation on the vulnerability of women, it is also a series of overlapping love stories – above all, the love a father has for his daughter.