It is an unbelievably hot day in Soweto and Nkgono is on one of her rare visits to us. And you did more than live up to yours.’ She shakes her head sadly and laughs as she says this. My grandmother often says she regrets giving me my name. In our quiet denial, The Yearning devours us. The Yearning never stops till we embrace everything that brought us here. A part of who I used to be has vanished and I’m now faced with the possibilities of who I could be. The life in me came at the cost of another’s but I refuse to apologise for that. My mother turns away from the traditions of the past. Why then do we love the one and despise the other? Why do we sacrifice so much of the present to hide the past? Why do we take away the future’s knowledge of itself in order to make the past seem perfect? My brother only knows a father when he looks in the mirror. A man’s work has its purpose in death, as part of his legacy. A new mother knows her purpose when she holds her baby within her and in her arms for the first time. There is no life without death the two rely on each other and we rely on them both for our purpose. My father is gone but his smile is alive on my brother’s face. I am grateful for that corpse that somehow always seemed to resurrect itself. My mother died seven times before she gave birth to me. Mashigo will be at this year’s Open Book Festival. Mohale Mashigo tells her story with charming lucidity, disarming characterisation, subversive wisdom and subtle humour.’ – Zakes Mda. ‘A bewitching addition to the current South African literary boom. The Yearning is a memorable exploration of the ripple effects of the past, of personal strength and courage, and of the shadowy intersections of traditional and modern worlds. It’s only a matter of time before it reaches out and grabs at her. Something dark has been lurking in the shadows of Marubini’s life from as far back as she can remember. Marubini is a young woman who has an enviable life in Cape Town, working at a wine farm and spending idyllic days with her friends … until her past starts spilling into her present. How long does it take for scars to heal? How long does it take for a scarred memory to fester and rise to the surface? For Marubini, the question is whether scars ever heal when you forget they are there to begin with.
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