PERIOD PAIN, a novel

157pp., paperback, Reprint, Johannesburg, (2016), 2025

"Period Pain's greatest strength is that it is utterly compelling. By turns morbid, ironic, funny, irreverent and angry, Masechaba is someone we care about, and her epxeriences and perceptions are acute and engaging. Her narrative provides vivid insights into contemporary South Africa - from the under-resourced state hospitals, corruption and graft, to its racial tensions and prejudices against foreigners." Professor Craig MacKenzie, University of Johannesburg

Kopano Matlwa won the 2006/2007 European Union Award for Coconut, and subsequently jointly won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa in 2010. Her successive novels are Spilt Milk, Period Pain and Bosadi. Matlwa, who has a Master’s in Global Health Science and a doctorate in Population Health from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, works as a public health physician in Johannesburg.