Scatterlings: A Novel

Written by Resoketswe Martha Manenzhe

Narrated by Christel Mutombo

A BEST NEW BOOK from *Vanity Fair *The Root *Vulture *People *The Washington Post *Christian Science Monitor *Los Angeles Times *Essence

A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice Pick! A New Yorker Best Book of the Year!

A lyrical, moving novel in the spirit of Transcendent Kingdom and A Burning—and the most awarded debut title in South Africa—that tells the story of a multiracial family when the Immorality Act is passed, revealing the story of one family’s scattered souls in the wake of history.

In 1927, South Africa passes the Immorality Act, prohibiting sexual intercourse between “Europeans” (white people) and “natives” (Black people). Those who break the draconian new law face imprisonment—for men of up to five years; for women, four years.

Abram and his wife Alisa have their share of marital problems, but they also have a comfortable life in South Africa with their two young girls. But then the Act is passed. Alisa is black, and their two children are now evidence of their involvement in a union that has been criminalized by the state.

At first, Alisa and Abram question how they’ll be affected by the Act, but then officials start asking questions at the girls’ school, and their estate is catalogued for potential disbursement. Abram is at a loss as to how to protect his young family from the grinding machinery of the law, whose worst discriminations have until now been kept at bay by the family’s economic privilege. And with this, his hesitation, the couple’s bond is tattered.

Alisa, who is Jamaican and the descendant of slaves, was adopted by a wealthy white British couple, who raised her as their child. But as she grew older and realized that the prejudices of British society made no allowance for her, she journeyed to South Africa where she met Abram. In the aftermath of the Immorality Act, she comes to a heartbreaking conclusion based on her past and collective history – and she commits her own devastating act, one that will reverberate through their entire family’s lives.

Intertwining her storytelling with ritual, myth, and the heart-wrenching question of who stays and who leaves, Scatterlings marks the debut of a gifted storyteller who has become a sensation in her native South Africa—and promises to take the Western literary world by storm as well.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Dec 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9780063264144

Resoketswe Martha Manenzhe

Rešoketšwe Manenzhe is a South African villager and storyteller. Her short stories and poems have appeared in the Kalahari Review, Fireside Fiction, Lolwe, FIYAH, and the 2017 Sol Plaatjie European Union Anthology, among other outlets. She has won the 2019 Writivism Short Story Prize, the 2020 Dinaane Debut Fiction Award, the 2021 Akuko Short Story Competition, the 2021 HSS Award for Best Fiction, the 2021 UJ Prize for South African Fiction in English, the First-Time Author award at the 2021 South African Literary Awards, and she was the first runner-up for the 2019 Collins Elesiro Prize for Fiction. She was shortlisted for the 2021 Sunday Times CNA Literary Awards. She lives in Cape Town.

Reviews for Scatterlings

[Alta Coetzee · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I cried and cried. The guilt I feel as an South African white person descendant of Europe is overwhelming. What have we done to these Golden people of Africa? Could have been different?. I think not. Europe's influence was just to strong for us as we too tried to find our identity away from the English and its cruelty.
What a a bsolutely amazing book. Buy I do feel that you should be from South Africa and a certain age to be able to understand all the nuances and references and views.
Brilliantly written. I tip my hat to the author.

[Taiwo Yetunde Williams · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A magical, mystical novel set in 20th century South Africa on the dawning of their Immorality Act of 1927.

I loved the narrative, although it felt quite disjointed at times. It explores the themes of identity, belonging, race and home.

I wish the characters could've been developed a bit more, but I'd love to read a sequel to see what happened to Dido and her father.