Young author turns school composition into novel
A STORY that Courage Mundingi first wrote as a simple English language composition back in 2017 has taken new life, becoming the former Nketa High School student’s first full-length novel.
The 21-year-old is set to launch her debut novel, A Tiger in a Secret, at Harvest House International in Bulawayo on 20 August.
In an interview with Sunday Life, the young author said the book, which explores the dangers of secrets in relationships, was conceived while he was doing his O-Levels, after encouragement from a tutor that was giving him extra lessons.
“There are some secrets that are dangerous and the more time passes and the more they grew, the more there are hazardous to those that hold them. The same applies to tigers.
“The bigger they grow, the more dangerous they become, hence the title of this book. It is back that began as a composition exercise while I was in school but because of the encouragement of my teacher, Mr Khumalo, it ended being bigger than that,” he said.
Mundingi said as a writer, he relied on the basic tenets of the English language to come up with his debut effort.
“I asked someone what writing is all about? In response he said, writing is a game of turning a picture into words by using those 26 letters on your English keyboard.
“He was right but to my perspective, I think it wasn’t enough, it takes so much creativeness and thinking smart to use 26 letters in the English alphabet and come up with words and from words to a book. Twenty-six letters can’t even create a single sentence, but without them, writing a single small word wasn’t going to be possible. That is what writing is all about, using the few you have to create more,” he said.
The young writer said while he would be launching his debut novel, he was already penning his second effort, a motivational book.
“Taking a turn is actually a basic trait of going to numerous places, success included. The main reason of taking a turn comes from realising where you want to go. If you have once realised that you want to go where there is success and you have no idea on how to, never worry because I have an upcoming book that will help you get there, to archive what you have been striving for. It’s a motivational book that talks about numerous smart ways on making it to the top,” he said.