UNTITLED, a novel

211pp., paperback, Cape Town, 2013

A teenage girl born into poverty dreams of going to Oxford to study Actuarial Science.

"... Moele delivers with seemingly artless simplicity a narrative of considerable complexity and depth ... In her diary [Mokgethi] recounts in a conversation with herself and the reader the downfall of some of her friends who have been lured or forced into sexual activity as young as 11. She brings up for consideration complicated and difficult matters: What is the position of children left in the care of angry and exhausted grandmothers; what to make of girls who use sex to survive, and how long can they expect to live; what of babies born to 15-year-olds ... Moele ... takes on seemingly respectable men – teachers, dance instructors, taxi drivers, uncles – all esteemed in the community, who have sex with very young girls, repeatedly and either in secret or openly. And then some cops, some magistrates, the old and young gossips, the families who condone, who turn a blind eye, all play a role and are all revealed in Mokgethi's story." Jane Rosenthal, Mail & Guardian

Kgebetli Moele was born in Polokwane and raised on a family farm. He lives and works in Tshwane (Pretoria). He is the author of the novels Room 207 (shortlisted for the 2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the Best First Book in Africa and joint winner of both the Herman Charles Bosman Prize and the University of Johannesburg Debut Fiction Prize) and The Book of the Dead (shortlisted for the 2010 Sunday Times Fiction Prize).