Magic and Masala

Sharifa has been keeping a secret, and although it threatens to unravel the fragile thread that holds her family together, she's determined to share it before she dies. Against the backdrop of the divisive Group Areas Act of the 50s, she travels from her beloved Cape Town to Bulawayo in southern Rhodesia - to the family she was once forced to reject. Sharifa's story, steeped in her love of her homeland and the magic of faith and spirit, threads back to the life she once led, and forward to the present day family she will engender: Harry, her great grandson, and now a grandfather himself, and his son, Calvin, shaped by an equal measure of choice and chance, still trying to come to terms with the scars of his childhood, his struggle to belong and the tragedy of "that day".

"What an illuminating read! Violette Kee-Tui's Magic and Masala is a wonderful novel that shines a much-needed light on the history of the Coloured and Muslim communities in southern Africa. In this fascinating family saga we get to see how race, gender and religion have played such an important role in shaping our identities and circumstances in this corner of the world. Kee-Tui's contribution to the diversity of voices coming out of the region is not only welcomed, it is vital. An impressive follow up to her debut novel, Mulberry Dreams, this story is as captivating as the beauty of the Namaqualand Daisies."

Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, 2022 winner ofthe Windham-Campbell prize for fiction