Through his art works, her younger brother, Simphiwe, comes in handy, helping her resolve the past which seems to be disrupting her present with such force and momentum. Is she haunted? Is it a Calling? She is yearning for the truth, but she is just as confused. While at face value it looks like Marubini’s breakdowns and seizures are caused by the said loss, the reader learns that all is not so plain and simple upon deeper interrogation. “Grief is so elusive just when you think the worst is over, it comes back to remind you how empty your life is without the person whom you lost,” she notes sadly. When she was a little girl, she lost the closest person to her heart and had since walked around with a void inside that she could not quite figure out. Marubini is Mashigo’s protagonist who works at a wine estate in Cape Town while living a comfortably middle class life with her French restaurant-owner boyfriend, Pierre. Mda describes Mashigo’s debut novel as a “bewitching addition to the current South African literary boom,” and indeed, it becomes quite obvious right from the beginning why the legendary Mda would put his proverbial life on the line for this haunting book. It is difficult ignore a debut novel which has Zakes Mda’s endorsement on its cover as a selling point. “My mother died seven times before she gave birth to me.” This is the opening sentence of Mashigo’s debut novel and it will only make sense once you begin to grasp the unfolding story.
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