Synopsis

 

Magona's collection of superb short stories brings a full range of South African women's experience brilliantly to light. From the village mother leaving her children to work to the maid in service to the white madam, the stories are at once tragic, triumphant, humorous, and sharp, but above all forcefully empowering.

 

Reviews

 

"Her book may be written to her children's children, but its messages go beyond bloodlines. It has something to say to the global family about the ravages of racism, the strength of the family and the perseverance of the African spirit."

— The Boston Globe

 

 

"Magona's memoir is a delightful, poignant, feisty and uplifting story that chronicles, in a refreshing and authentic voice, what it means to attain womanhood in a society where patriarchy and apartheid often conspired to degrade and enslave women economically, domestically, politically, traditionally and sexually. "

— Washington Post Book World

 

 

"Her vivid descriptions of Xhosa customs unfold not as an anthropologist's field study but as a memory etched from experience."

— Publisher's Weekly