Sim is the only one who believes that she did not try to kill herself, even though it stretches credibility to believe that she could have accidentally cut both wrists with a glass when in the bath. What is more satisfying is the psychological bond between the siblings. Marubini’s brother Sim also has mystical powers: he sketches events at which he was not present so that they can be interpreted, and once again, the reader has to accept that this is possible and not some sort of skulduggery. When these seizures seem to suggest that Marubini has tried to kill herself, she reluctantly consults a therapist, but her family has different ideas, though they argue about whether their traditional healing methods should be revealed to Marubini or not. (And yes, I guessed what that was, as most readers will, though it’s not quite in the form that I thought it would be). When these seizures occur, she sees her dead father and she also experiences what might be visions or flashbacks to some traumatic experience in her past. It is when Marubini begins to suffer what are thought to be seizures that the book becomes more interesting.

Apart from some minor commentary about patronising racism that still persists in her workplace, this is all a bit lightweight and it goes on for about one-fifth of the novel. She is also grieving the death of her grandfather Ntatemoholo and her father Baba who disappeared in mysterious circumstances. She works in marketing for a wine company, she has relationship issues with her mother and with her boyfriend Pierre, and she hangs around with her girlfriend Unathi. Marubini is a young woman living in Cape Town. The other problem with Mashigo’s novel is that it takes a while to develop any narrative tension. The reader has to accept that release from psychological torment comes from traditional practices that seem very strange indeed, if not downright harmful. But Alizadeh’s novel overtly acknowledges that there is no satisfactory proof of Jeanne’s visions, and the reader can choose to believe in them or not without spoiling the novel. Because it explores the impacts of traditional healing techniques, it places the reader in the same position as the reader of Ali Alizadeh’s novel The Last Days of Jeanne d’Arc: both novels depict mystical experiences and characters acting on spiritual beliefs that most people in the contemporary western world don’t believe in.

The Yearning, by Mohale Mashigo, winner of the 2016 University of Johannesburg Prize for South African Debut Writing, is an unusual novel.

Mohale mashigo the yearning