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Lessons in Husbandry by Shaida Kazie Ali (Umuzi)
I was unfortunate enough to discover Ike’s Bookstore in Durban only two weeks before I moved away from the city.
But luckily, just before I left I went to a book launch there, for Lessons in Husbandry by Shaida Kazie Ali. I’d never heard of the book before, but was glad to be able to spend time in the bookstore again, after getting lost in the shelves there for hours the weekend before.
Ali was funny and very modest about her book at the launch, sharing details that probably ruined the story a bit for me, but didn’t take away from my enjoyment of it after I took my signed copy that night.
It took me a while to finish, mainly because I was moving, but also because the story is fundamentally sad. Some of the chapters were hard to read, just because of the sense of dread I felt for the character, and what might happen in her complicated love situation.
Malak is married, but to a man who was engaged to her sister Amal before she went missing about a decade before.
She and Taj have a functional domestic life, but Malak is lonely, only gaining some sort of meaning from her creative output at the cupcake store she owns with her friend Rakel- who encourages her to take part in a memoir-writing course.
Lessons in Husbandry is Malak’s memoir, a story that recounts the details of the writing course itself and the daily challenge she faces of remembering her sister and trying to make sense of her disappearance. But most importantly, the story is about the powerful effects of love, and the man she meets that changes her life and adds colour to her dull existence.
Keen on reading this book? Buy your copy now.
Read this book yet? Tell us what you thought of the book in the comment box below.
Sign up for women24's book club newsletter and stand a chance to win our top ten books from kalahari.com.
I was unfortunate enough to discover Ike’s Bookstore in Durban only two weeks before I moved away from the city.
But luckily, just before I left I went to a book launch there, for Lessons in Husbandry by Shaida Kazie Ali. I’d never heard of the book before, but was glad to be able to spend time in the bookstore again, after getting lost in the shelves there for hours the weekend before.
Ali was funny and very modest about her book at the launch, sharing details that probably ruined the story a bit for me, but didn’t take away from my enjoyment of it after I took my signed copy that night.
It took me a while to finish, mainly because I was moving, but also because the story is fundamentally sad. Some of the chapters were hard to read, just because of the sense of dread I felt for the character, and what might happen in her complicated love situation.
Malak is married, but to a man who was engaged to her sister Amal before she went missing about a decade before.
She and Taj have a functional domestic life, but Malak is lonely, only gaining some sort of meaning from her creative output at the cupcake store she owns with her friend Rakel- who encourages her to take part in a memoir-writing course.
Lessons in Husbandry is Malak’s memoir, a story that recounts the details of the writing course itself and the daily challenge she faces of remembering her sister and trying to make sense of her disappearance. But most importantly, the story is about the powerful effects of love, and the man she meets that changes her life and adds colour to her dull existence.
Keen on reading this book? Buy your copy now.
Read this book yet? Tell us what you thought of the book in the comment box below.
Sign up for women24's book club newsletter and stand a chance to win our top ten books from kalahari.com.
