Intruders: short stories

Title: Intruders (Picador Africa)
Author: Mohale Mashigo
Reviewer: Nancy Richards
If I didn’t know different, I would say that Mohale Mashigo was one very sassy, savvy, sophisticated and stylish writer. Well I’m not wrong – she is indeed all of those things – but she’s also a sufferer. Anxiety and depression have become bedfellows in the life of this lady who, with her wild weaves and nose-ring, award-winning singer-songwriter and comic book writer on her CV, at first glance you would take for a super-successful celebrity with sites on the world stage.
So with that said, it’s interesting to know that Mohale takes solace in writing – and that it’s the one thing that when the black dog bites, she says she can do to get her through.
The short stories in Intruders are every bit as complex and layered as the writer herself Divided into three sections: The Good, The Bad and The Colourful – they touch on amongst other things, Afrofuturism and the fantastical – working well with words and looking both back into tradition and forward into worlds and places, light and dark, dreamt and imagined.
Previously Mohale has written The Yearning which won her a UJ Debut Prize for SA writing in English as well as a young adult novel Beyond the River. She wins my award for Completely Original I Write What I Think Don’t Judge Me.  She dares to be different.

---