Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night (Interlink World Fiction) - Softcover

Magona, Sindiwe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1566564522 ISBN 13: 9781566564526

Publisher: Interlink Books, 2009

Synopsis

From the village mother leaving her children to work; the maid in service to the white medem; the black child raped and murdered, Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night is at once tragic, triumphant, humorous, and sharp, but above all forcefully empowering.

About this title

About the Author:

Sindiwe Magona grew up in Transkei village and spent her adolescence on the Cape Flats. She is the author of Forced to Grow, To My Children’s Children, and Mother to Mother. She lives in South Africa.

From Booklist:

Both tragic and seemingly inconsequential events are equally important--and equally poetically rendered--in these stories of South African women's lives. This collection is a forceful document of injustices. The voices that emerge are elegant and moving in their simplicity. In the opening story, a woman leaves her mud hut--and her five young children--to flee to the misty mountains beyond her village. She had been awake at night, in despair, considering where their next meal would come from. Her move is incomprehensible--the youngest child is still nursing. Then one comment gives meaning to the whole: "To be a good mother I must leave." Her mother-in-law will take over, she hopes. It is only later that we learn, she has become hired help in a white household to earn money to support her family. Magona is a storyteller centered in her power, convinced of the universal relevance of what she sees. The effect is felt like the strong South African sun, each story's momentum like the pounding of a drum. Deanna Larson-Whiterod

About this edition

• Publisher: Interlink Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1566564522
• ISBN 13: 9781566564526
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 166