Author(s): Magogodi oaMphela Makhene

Short Stories | South Africa

'A gut punch of a collection...it astonishes as it reveals how malignant political forces can both ravage and vitalize the human spirit.' New York Times

Set in Soweto, the urban heartland of South Africa, Innards tells the intimate stories of everyday black folks processing the savagery of apartheid. Rich with the thrilling textures of township language and life, it braids the voices and perspectives of an indelible cast of characters into a breathtaking collection flush with forgiveness, rage, ugliness and beauty. Meet a fake PhD and ex-freedom fighter who remains unbothered by his own duplicity, a girl who goes mute after stumbling upon a burning body, twin siblings nursing a scorching feud, and a woman unravelling under the weight of a brutal encounter with the police. At the heart of this collection - of deceit and ambition, appalling violence and transcendent love - is the story of slavery, colonization and apartheid - and it shows in intimate detail how South Africans must navigate both the shadows of the recent past and the uncertain opportunities of the promised land.

Full to bursting with life, in all its complexities and vagaries, Innards is an uncompromising depiction of black South Africa. Visceral and tender, it heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.

Review: Do not miss this authoritative, urgent take on modern South Africa * Oprah *

An unforgettable debut that hits with all the force of the sun. Complex and breathtaking, Innards is a book haunted by apartheid's monstrous shadow and illuminated by the radiant talent of one of our generation's most original voices. Makhene writes like liberation should feel: transcendently.

* Junot Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of This is How You Lose Her and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao *
Innards by the brilliant Magogodi Makhene is a wonder. Magnificent and devastating * NoViolet Bulawayo, Booker-listed author of Glory and We Need New Names *

Innards reads like a relay of fearless, burning emblems, each story lit by the one before and each igniting the next. Beautiful, lethal, funny, righteous visions... ablaze with the utterly familiar and the utterly mysterious. This work is prophetic?not because it shows us what will be, but because it shows us how it all really is. Simply, marvellous.

* Paul Harding, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of This Other Eden *
A much-needed addition to contemporary fiction... Makhene's stories capture the heart and soul of the Soweto people * Booklist, starred review *
Makhene shapes her debut story collection around suburban Soweto, from its inception during apartheid as the South-Western Townships until its eventual incorporation into Johannesburg proper....Makhene's vividly rendered stories are propulsive and challenging * Kirkus, starred review *

Author Biography: Magogodi oaMphela Makhene is a proudly Soweto-made soul, who now makes her home anywhere with sunshine and writing space. An Iowa Writers' Workshop alum, Magogodi is a Caine Prize, Hedgebrook, MacDowell and Rona Jaffe Award honoree. She leads immersive courses and experiences at Love As A Kind of Cure, a social enterprise she co-founded to dismantle white supremacy.