Book description
In many of these stories, there is as sense that things are not as
they seem: a woman's husband-to-be has a questionable past and a
voluptuous stranger's beauty belies her malevolence. Characters are
shaped by the particular challenges of their context Â- a young
pregnant Mosarwa girl is forced to make a terrible decision and the
barren wife of a wealthy Gaborone man is made to see an old woman with
supposed powers of fertility. Atmospheric and evocative, these stories
will entertain and transport you to the hot, dusty heart of Botswana.
'At times chilling, often funny and always engaging, the stories in
this collection, though not strictly connected, are linked by their
shared landscape - rural Botswana - and the rich characters who
brilliantly portray this country's small-town life, from the old man who
leaves his money to his dog when he dies to McPhineas Lata, who, from
the grave, sparks a sexual revolution among the married men and women of
Nokanyana village. In many of these stories, there is as sense that
things are not as they seem: a woman's husband-to-be has a questionable
past and a voluptuous stranger's beauty belies her malevolence.
Characters are shaped by the particular challenges of their context - a
young pregnant Mosarwa girl is forced to make a terrible decision and
the barren wife of a wealthy Gaborone man is made to see an old woman
with supposed powers of fertility. Atmospheric and evocative, these
stories will entertain and transport you to the hot, dusty heart of
Botswana.' (Bronwyn McLennan, South African writer and editor) Lauri
Kubuitsile is an award-winning, full-time writer living in Botswana. Her
short stories have been published on four continents and she has 14
published works of fiction, primarily for children. She has also written
two television series and numerous radio scripts. She has twice won the
Golden Baobab Prize for Africans writing for children, in 2009 and 2010.
In 2011, she was shortlisted for the prestigious Caine Prize for her
story 'In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata'. She was born in the USA but is
now a naturalised citizen of Botswana. She's married with two teenaged
