Current installment of Tommi Reads the World – we’re still in the Bs.
Country: Botswana
Title: Call and Response
Author: Gothataone Moeng
Language: English
Translator: N/A
Publisher: Viking 2023
It’s been a bit since I’ve done a “Tommi Reads the World,” but I’m back and we are STILL in the Bs. Call and Response is a collection of stories that really reads more like a love letter to Botswana. The stories feature characters who are both clinging to tradition and longing to escape, as well as those who have returned after leaving.The title of the collection comes from “Dark Matter” and evokes an almost religious experience in Nametso returning home after years in the states. The severe HIV/Aids epidemic is touched on in Botalaote, as a young girl cares for her dying aunt, whom she just calls the “patient” while she wants to enjoy a wedding. My favorite story was likely “Small Wonders,” about a woman dealing with the untimely passing of her husband, the traditional grief process, and her continued grief. “Early Life and Education” is the longest story in the collection, and it seems as if this was intended to be a full length novel that never got the flesh on its bones. It was my least favorite.
The collection is a powerful one of girlhood and womanhood, but also simply of “home.”
Read this collection.
A Girl Named Tommi 