Liz Between The Lines

The beautiful Bontle Tau has Johannesburg’s most influential men dancing on the palm of her hand in this hilarious South African novel. Competition is tough as they, unknowingly, compete to pay for her penthouse, pay for her cars, local and international getaways as well as give her stipend to live on. Other than focusing on ensuring she always looks Instagram perfect, no matter the cost or circumstance, Bontle also directs her attention (well, sometimes) on her start-up business while simultaneously dealing with her ex-husband-to-be and healing from childhood and family trauma. Bontle’s live-for-today attitude might get her through the short term but could be detrimental in the long term.  Like most of my favourite first-person narrators, Bontle is as unreliable as they come. However, her interactive narration feels as though she’s talking directly to the reader and Angela Makholwa’s witty style of writing leaves you laughing in disbelief. As much as I enjoye...

I was on a quest to find African literature so I visited the City of Cape Town Library (for the first time in almost 5 years) and created a library card. On Black Sisters' Street was the first book that caught my attention. On Black Sisters'  Street is centred around four women doing their best to survive in Europe by opening their bodies to clients but their souls to no one - not even each other. The violent murder of one of the ladies draws the surviving sisters together, thereby forcing them to unravel lifelong secrets they've never said out loud to each other. Ama who ran away from an abusive and traumatic home; Sisi, an unemployed graduate, tired of an unambitious life; Efe, a young mom abandoned by the much older father of her son and Joyce who thought she had found a reason to live again but only gained betrayal which led her to Zuidsusterstraat . A few trigger warnings: rape and blatant misogyny. Although I found it uncomfortable, the hatred of women by...