The big interview Sue Nyathi...

ZIMBABWEAN author Sue Nyathi has written her third book – A Family Affair – in her usual crisp prose, exploring the tensions and complex dynamics within family.

Her writing resonates intensely with readers, who have become deeply invested in characters and their fates.

The Gold Diggers, published in 2018, is Nyathi’s second work of fiction. Her debut, The Polygamist, was self-published in 2012.

A Family Affair follows the lives of the Mafus, a close-knit, traditional family with three daughters. As leaders of their church, The Kingdom of God, Pastor Abraham and his wife Phumla guide the community of Bulawayo in faith.

Nyathi introduces us to the sisters – Yandisa, Xoliswa and Zandile who are from a suburban, middle-class family. And through these characters, readers will be exposed to ways in which women live, showing the different trajectories women follow in life.

What one may find is that these aren’t unfamiliar characters – we’ve all met someone like them at some point.

The familiar family story makes one see how alike our families are.

According to Nyathi, the characters and their storylines are largely imagined and observed. “There isn’t anyone I had in mind when creating these characters. My work is mostly from imagination and observation,” she said.

She began writing the book in her first year of university when she was about 20 years old.

“It’s a book I’ve always wanted to write, and it’s a good thing it wasn’t published then because I also needed to grow as a writer,” she said.

“In all my books, intentionality comes in, in terms of wanting to highlight women’s issues. I am very deliberate about that, and that is why I felt it’s important to have the three sisters,” she added.

While her writing style is both narrative and descriptive, Nyathi doesn’t necessarily dictate to us what to take away from the book. It simply positions itself as a book that encourages difficult conversations. One of the virtues that stick out from the book is the prospect of owning your choices, whatever those choices are, “own them”.

Some of the themes that are threaded throughout the book are family traditions, cultural practice, religion, gender-based violence, the class system, sexuality, toxic masculinity and more.

The character development is impeccable, gradual and deliberate. I resonated so much so with the characters that I walked miles in their different shoes. When they hurt, I hurt too, when things were going well, I rooted for them.

This dramatic and relatable read will quickly remind readers that Nyathi is from Zimbabwe, as her Shona-speaking nature comes through a lot in her writing, and the events that take place in the book are largely set in Bulawayo.

Nyathi is to be commended for creating characters that are close to us, familiar to us, and in some instances, are us.