NOVELIST BRIGITTA ZWANE RELEASES HOPE
“Andi and Khavu are barely teenagers yet they have to learn to fend for themselves in a world where danger is always lurking at every corner.
Andi, the older sibling, scurries and claws to make ends meet, but no matter how much he tries, he is always short. Tracy, a young graduate from Malaysia, has lost everything… Every time she tries to rebuild, things come tumbling down. Will she ever heal and rebuild?
Will the comfort she finds be forever or will that too end up in yet another loss. From the bustling streets of
Harare, sweeping through the arid red soils of Botswana and ushering you to the lush mountains in South Africa. Hope takes you on a whirlwind. You will learn to love and hate the characters, and also laugh and cry with them, and run and rise for them.” Reads the blurb to Francistown based writer, Brigitta Zwani’s new offering, Hope.
Zwani is undoubtedly one of the best novelists in the country, and her latest book, Hope, seals the deal. Her first novel, The Shrink, which came out in 2017, was a riveting offering that read like a movie. With Hope, there is a shift, but the unique storytelling and word play is still present.
In an interview with this publication, Zwani said the story just came to her because in her case, the characters usually write the story, and she follows the lead. “I don’t have a plan when I am writing – I just sit down at my computer and the characters tell me what to write,” she said. She further said since she posted excerpts of the book ( the blurb) on social media, some people had commented on how it touched them. “Some say I address issues such as xenophobia, and others said I help people walk in the shoes of our struggling Zimbabwean neighbours. When I do look back, I notice that the book also touches on Gender Based Violence, the pain of experiencing a miscarriage, human trafficking, and hope,” she said. She explained that she started writing the book in 2018 and it was an easy experience somehow because she drew some of the experiences from the past, while some of the characters
were derived from people she knows personally or has interacted with. She noted that her writing style has changed – grown and evolved, and some of her most loyal readers have pointed this out to her. “I have had people read Hope and they commented on how my writing style is completely different. Well, the books, both The Shrink and Hope, are different, and I want to treat them differently,” she said. Zwani is already taking preorders for the book. For more information, visit her Facebook page, Brigitta Zwani.