4.5 stars This novel centers around three women in South Africa in the mid 1990s. The HIV epidemic is unfolding, Nelson Mandela has just been elected and tensions are running high. Zodwa is a young pregnant Zulu girl with a very sick mother. Ruth and Delilah are estranged sisters who have both left South Africa but have found themselves back together and at odds upon the death of their parents. One morning a baby appears on their doorstep. The stories of these women, or course, begin in dependently and become entwined.
I really enjoyed Bianca Marais’s first book, Hum If You Don’t Know The Words, so I was quick to pick this one up at my library. It did not disappoint. With themes of feminism, abuse of power, mothers, relationships, it has a range of emotions and did not feel contrived. In fact, I have been in my first (?) Reading slump and this book ripped me right out of it.