Dinaane: Short Stories by Women from South Africa (Short Stories by Women from Around the World)

A welcome addition to the series that showcases women’s writing from around the world, this collection provides a snapshot of modern, post-apartheid South Africa. Landscape and climate, the political versions of weather, historical or current, apolitical or steeped in dank guilt, are evident throughout this rich and varied collection.

Now the woman took the first milk of as many cows had calves, and put it into the calabash where her daughter’s heart was; the calabash increased in size, and in proportion to this the girl grew again inside it.

Maggie Davey is the publishing director of the independent South African publishing house Jacana Media.