We Inherit the Fire

A vivid, atmospheric novel set against the end of apartheid in South Africa, centred on a family of Black women who fracture and fall back together again amidst a nation-wide reckoning. Kewame “Dolly” Malaka is unravelling. A former political prisoner, now a mother and mistress of a beautiful home, she struggles to maintain a fragile image of domestic perfection, finding herself lost somewhere between childhood, prison, and the present. Kelelo, Kewame’s teenage daughter, is growing up in a time when the things her mother fought for are being realized. At school, Kelelo enjoys a certain level of fame as the child of a former political prisoner. At home, she wrestles with the painful reality of an emotionally distant mother, who shrouds her past in silence and secrecy. In gorgeously rendered, unflinching prose, We Inherit the Fire entwines the intimate with the historical, injustice with resilience, and tenderness with pain in its excavation of the fractured bonds between generations. With the startling specificity and boundary-breaking potential of Francesca Ekwuyasi's Butter Honey Pig Bread, this novel sears its mark onto the reader’s memory long after the final page.

Kagiso Lesego Molope is an award-winning storyteller and playwright. She is the author of four novels for young adults, including Such a Lonely, Lovely Road and This Book Betrays My Brother. Her works focus on issues of gender, sexuality, land defence, indigenous knowledge and identity. They have also been well-prescribed in schools across multiple countries.Molope is the winner of the 2014 Percy FitzPatrick Award, the 2019 Ottawa Book Award, and the 2019 Inaugural Pius Adesanmi Memorial Award. In 2016, She was the second writer-in-residence for the British Council’s Small Wonder International Festival. She currently lives in Canada and visits SA regularly.