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Love Interrupted

Love Interrupted

by Reneilwe Malatji

Published by: Catalyst Press

Imprint: Catalyst Press

224 Pages, 5.00 x 8.00 in

Paperback
9781946395030
Published: August 2018

$15.95

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Description
Contents
Authors
Praise
Awards

"[E]ach story inventively unfurls a different desire, longing, or frustration" — Jacinda Townsend, author Saint Monkey

In her debut collection of short fiction, Reneilwe Malatji invites us into the intimate lives of South African women—their whispered conversations, their love lives, their triumphs and heartbreaks. This diverse chorus of female voices recounts misadventures with love, family, and community in powerful stories woven together with anger, politics, and wit. Malatji crafts an engaging collection full of rich, memorable characters who navigate work, love, patriarchy, and racism with thoughtfulness, strength, and humor.

Angela 1
Drama Queens and Kings 13
Love Interrupted 26
Lebo’s Story 1: A Young Girl’s Dream Interrupted 57
Lebo’s Story 2: It’s My Turn to Eat 76
Vicious Cycle 91
The Things We Do For Love 108
Take Back the Lobola 123
Bridal Shower 137
My Perfect Husband 152
The Threat 163
A Million Dollars in Grahamstown 175
Toy Boy 200
Glossary 220

Reneilwe Malatji was born in South Africa in 1968. She grew up in Turfloop township, in the northern part of South Africa, during the era of apartheid. Her father was an academic and her mother was a school teacher. Malatji trained as a teacher and worked as a subject specialist and advisor to provincial education departments. She recently completed a post-graduate diploma in Journalism and an MA in Creative Writing at Rhodes University. She works as a lecturer at the University of Limpopo in South Africa and has an adult son. Love interrupted is her first book.

"The unsentimental style of these stories packs an emotional punch as they examine post-apartheid patriarchy through the eyes of various observant black women characters." —Foreword Reviews ~AIMEE JODOIN

"Woven into the insightful observations on love and relationships is the omnipresent tension between tradition and the ways that being a South African woman today challenges previously held ideas about women’s roles. Many readers will see themselves in—and find themselves rooting for—the women in Malatji’s solid debut." — Kirkus Reviews

"[Love Interrupted] gives a nuanced glimpse into women's lives a world away from many of us, but those women could, in many ways, be women anywhere. [...] Their authenticity allows the stories to connect women's experiences while showcasing the strength and resiliency of women in a system built against them. [...] [A] beautiful and poignant story collection." — Shelf Unbound

Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize for Love Interrupted