Living, loving and lying awake at night – Sindiwe Magona
Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night is a collection of short stories by South African writer Sindiwe Magona. The book feels almost like a conversation you could have with a neighbor, a sister, or an auntie, people telling you what life has been like for them in a world shaped by poverty, apartheid, and womanhood.
The stories mostly focus on women. Ordinary women, not queens or famous people, but mothers, daughters, wives, friends, and workers. They are women who face hardship every single day, yet they still dream, still laugh, still find ways to survive. Magona writes about how love mixes with pain, how relationships can be both a comfort and a prison, and how society's rules often limit women's choices.
One story may tell of a woman lying awake at night because her husband is unfaithful. Another might show the pain of poverty, where a mother struggles to feed her children. Yet another story brings out friendship, resilience, and the quiet strength that women carry in silence.
What makes the book powerful is how it balances suffering with resilience. The women are not just victims, they are thinkers, lovers, survivors. They endure betrayal, injustice, and social judgment, yet they also find moments of laughter, love, and even rebellion.
About the Author
magona
Img credit: ru.az.za
Sindiwe Magona was born in 1943 in Umtata, South Africa, and grew up in Guguletu, a township near Cape Town. She lived through apartheid, which deeply shaped her writing and her activism. Before she became a writer, she worked as a domestic worker, cleaning and cooking in other people's homes, while raising her children. This gave her a firsthand view of inequality, struggle, and survival, especially for Black women in South Africa.
Later, she studied and eventually worked for the United Nations in New York, where she focused on issues of women and development. Her journey from township poverty to international leadership shows the strength she writes about in her books.
Magona is not just a storyteller, she is a voice for the voiceless. Her works include novels, short stories, poems, and even children's books. A recurring theme in her writing is the resilience of women, the scars of apartheid, and the importance of community. She writes in a way that honors the everyday lives of women who history often forgets.
Her other notable works include Mother to Mother (a novel that reimagines the story of Amy Biehl's killing during apartheid) and Please, Take Photographs. She has won recognition for her contribution to literature and for speaking boldly about women's lives.
Sindiwe Magona's writing connects the pain of the past with the hope of the future.
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