Category Archives: Book

Book Review: Nomaswazi by Busisekile Khumalo

Posted on by under Book, Culture

The story begins with a recollection of a wedding. You would think they live the happily ever after. Instead find yourself on a high speed train ride that is the relationship between Nomaswazi and the man that left her at the altar. An innocent girl, she is crushed by the rejection and flees to Johannesburg.

One day she is minding her own business when he saunters casually back into her life and decides that he has no intention of leaving. She loves him, yet she hates him. He loves her, yet he feels undeserving of her after ditching her at the altar and trying to keep a lid on the demons of his past. He pulls out all the stops in his effort to get her back. The story will have you hooked, wondering what other curveballs the writer will throw and she has plenty. Busisekile’s imagination is unparalleled and her research is on point making the story so real.

With recollections of war, weapons smuggling, intrigue, hot erotic encounters as well as a fatal sibling rivalry, this story set mainly in rural eSwatini will keep you up late as you try to find out whether Nomaswazi and her man eventually make it down the aisle and get their happily ever after.

Book Review: The Y in Your Man is Silent Book 1; Book 2 by Yvonne Maphosa

Posted on by under Book, Culture, Relationships

By Nomathemba Pearl Dzinotyiwei

“He’s not your man, he’s OUR man.” That is the essence of the story in these two books. Whether she’s called the mistress, the side-chick or side dish, the other woman has many names in every language. This story is told from her point of view. An innocent, nerdy engineering student named Lastborn Fierce Nkomo from Zimbabwe falls for the charm of a handsome, dashing Ghanaian professor named Elikplim who’s a few years older than her. He’s a caring, sensitive man, a worthy contender in the Boyfriend Olympics, that is until he marries someone else. Despite that, the epic cross country love affair set in Cape Town and Johannesburg continues with Akon’s music as their soundtrack.

Just when you think you know what happens next, the author literally pulls the rug from under the feet of your mind and sends you tumbling as the couple lurch from one disaster to another, major and minor. Unlike most romantic dramas, in fact drama doesn’t even begin to describe it, the author unapologetically refuses to let them to catch a break. Rolling in money from his engineering practice with his best friend and partner in crime at every level called Lumka, Elik is the ultimate blesser. A generous man, not only with his money, he’s also extremely liberal with his umm… candy cane. There was so much cheating going on, even the players were getting played, I felt like I needed therapy after Book 1 and halfway through Book 2. I watched Star Wars then finished the story.

The story gives the other woman’s perspective of the extra-marital affair. Komla, the wife, favoured by the family, is not entirely innocent and makes a few fatal mistakes in her desperate quest to save her marriage. Betrayed repeatedly by Elik, physically and emotionally abused in turn by his wife, her sister and his other relatives; Fierce, named after a freedom fighter and true to her name, fights her wiser, more sensible self, her family, her friends and Elik’s wife and family to hold onto her love for him, repeatedly forgiving him and taking him back. She experiences a dramatic and cruel rejection by her own family, just as she is preparing to make things right by finally becoming an honest woman. The journey to redemption is equally arduous as the couple try to work out why and how their individual messes come together to create the hot mess that is their relationship.

With progressively steamy scenes as the story goes on, with break-up sex, make-up sex, revenge sex, theatrical break-ups and equally sudden make-ups, Fierce and her ‘Ghana Man’ as Fierce’s Aunt calls him, will take you on an emotional rollercoaster ride. The ending is no less dramatic. A third book is definitely in order otherwise the suspense will kill anyone who dares to read both books.

As a self-published work, there is a lot of artistic license, so there is phrasing that would cause the grammar and syntax Nazis to take umbrage. Otherwise it’s a gripping and unforgettable read which needs its own Netflix series. I hope the universe is listening.

Book Review: This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga

Posted on by under Book, Culture

By Nomathemba Pearl Dzinotyiwei

The novel is set in Zimbabwe in the 2000s. The economy is ruined and the populace are scrambling for what few opportunities are left for survival in the city. Smart office buildings in the city now house a motley assortment of small businesses providing different goods and services, whatever is in demand at the time. However bad things are in the city, they are worse in the village as few city dwellers can afford trips home or to send much-needed money and groceries. Yet with their generosity of spirit, people from the village send a share of their produce to help out family members in the city. Tambudzai Sigauke, the protagonist must use her wits to survive in the city. Degreed but unemployed like hundreds of thousands of others, she has to make her way in the unforgiving city environment, get a place to lay her head, feed herself and find her way back to the prosperity she feels entitled to, all without completely losing her mind.

If you ever lived in Harare any time after the year 2000, you can relate to this story. The looming possibility of descending into the ignorant bliss of lunacy is ever-present in a country where nothing makes sense. The narrowing range of choices and unspeakable deeds some people contemplate and others do in order to keep the wolf from the door are only things people in a post-conflict economy in a developing nation can understand. Zimbabwe may not have been at war with another nation, but the war by the state against its citizens continues unabated to this day.

This novel written in the second person, by the narrator taking a dispassionate look at Tambudzai and the choices she makes, that precipitate chaos within and around her. This is a novel that will need you to dig deep into the well of your English vocabulary and occasionally look up a few words. The expressions are an interesting, rendering of Shona to English, attempting to express the meaning without necessarily using direct translation. Being Zimbabwean, I easily recognise the stories, songs and the expressions that are particular to the Manyika dialect spoken in the Eastern region. This novel could easily be translated into Shona with no loss of depth meaning. Perhaps one day, there will be someone courageous enough to do that for all three of the novels in the trilogy. Our languages carry an entire knowledge system, which if we don’t preserve them, will completely disappear.

The story is a haunting testament to the women of our country who stand strong despite violence, abuse, poverty and deprivation but soldier on and triumph over circumstances that have broken people with a less robust mental constitution. The men are there, but not there, battling demons of their own, powerless over the circumstances that reduce them and sadly taking out that frustration on the women. Thank you Tsitsi for telling the story of our mothers, our sisters, the story of the women that endure to birth the future. May that future be a better one.

Book Review: The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman

Posted on by under Book, Culture

By Nomathemba Pearl Dzinotyiwei

A few years there was a movie called the Golden Compass, based on the work of Philip Pullman about a young girl called Lyra who owned and could read a strange instrument. She was the subject of a prophecy like Harry Potter, and this made her a person of great interest to the religious, occult and scientific communities. The climax of the movie is when she frees a great polar bear and helps him regain his magic armor which makes him invincible in the war. If you enjoyed the movie, you’ll want to read this book.

The Book of Dust, his latest work, is the first of a trilogy published in 2017 is the prequel to Lyra’s story. It tells of the inauspicious circumstances of her birth, to the beautiful, yet terrifying Mrs. Coulter and the intrepid adventurer and scientist Lord Asriel. The two were in an adulterous love affair which resulted in the fatal shooting of Mr. Coulter by Lord Asriel in a fight. Lyra is born soon after. Mrs Coulter doesn’t have a maternal bone in her body and Lord Asriel is regarded as an unfit parent. As a result the baby Lyra is taken into sanctuary by the nuns at the priory in Godstow, a small village on the banks of the River Thames. There, she forms a bond with Malcolm, the innkeeper’s son who helps the nuns on a regular basis.

The story is told from young Malcolm’s point of view. An intelligent and curious child of uncommon kindness, decency and courage, Malcolm emerges as the hero, when the forces of nature, religion and the state threaten the baby Lyra’s life. After many misadventures and gaining an unlikely ally, Malcolm and his trusty canoe called La Belle Sauvage find themselves embroiled in a web of espionage as they battle the elements, a demented ex-convict and religious fundamentalists in an effort to get Lyra to an alternative place of safety.

This is a gripping tale where the worlds of magic, reality, religion and science collide in the battle for the hearts and minds of humanity. Philip Pullman takes us back to where it all began. The cliffhanger ending is sure to make you want to read the next work of this trilogy.

No Rules – Available on Amazon

Posted on by under Book, Crushes, Culture, Relationships

This is a cross-cultural love story of two millennials set in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is available on Amazon under Women’s Fiction. To read a sample and purchase, go to https://www.amazon.com/kindle/dp/B071NY9YXC/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_eos_detail

You can check out my other posts on this blog and visit my FaceBook Page at https://www.facebook.com/lamourafricaine/

This is my first self-published novel, under the my nom de plume Pearl Deyi. Deyi is one of the family names of our clan, oManzini aba kwaZungu and also has letters from my surname.