DO NOT GO GENTLE

162pp., paperback, Reprint, Modjaji Books, Cape Town, (2014) 2022

ISBN: 9781928433446

Young adult novel set in Mkhumbane township, outside Pietermaritzburg. When 14-year-old Mvelo's mother dies from AIDS and she becomes pregnant after a sexual assault, she makes a choice that changes everything.

"Her story grabs the reader by the hair and drags them through the roughest and dirtiest places that our almost broken country has given birth to. And then it does a remarkable thing: it turns into a fairy tale. Not of rags to riches, but of isolation to embrace ... a drama of redemption. I can't remember when last a book made me cry from happiness" Karin Schimke, Cape Argus  

"It is a story about joy and hope and courage, and what it means to lift up others and be lifted oneself, and how one young girl found her voice in a world seemingly determined to take it way." Shelf Awareness (starred review)

Futhi Ntshingila grew up in Pietermaritzburg and currently lives and works in Pretoria. She is also the author of the novels Shameless and They got to you too.