Innards: Stories

Set in Soweto, the urban heartbeat of South Africa, Innards tells the intimate stories of everyday black folks processing the savagery of apartheid with grit, wit, and their own distinctive bewildering humor. 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 unraveling under the weight of a brutal encounter with the police. At the heart of these stories about deceit and ambition, appalling violence, familial turmoil, and love is South Africa's history of slavery, colonization, and apartheid. Like many Americans today, Innards' characters must navigate the shadows of the recent past alongside 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.

Author: Magogodi Oamphela Makhene
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 06/06/2023
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.73lbs
Size: 8.64h x 5.92w x 0.83d
ISBN: 9781324051008


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 12/01/2022 pg. 7
Kirkus Reviews 04/01/2023
Booklist 05/15/2023 pg. 17
Library Journal 06/02/2023 pg. 1