adminEntertainment Correspondent
RENOWNED storyteller and creative writer Lilian Masitera has embarked on a countrywide tour marketing her new and fifth book, Saskum Express. The Harare-based writer and mathematician first launched the book on July 29 in the capital at Book Café and said she was happy with the response so far when interviewed by The Weekender in Mutare recently. Various local literature lecturers and university students attended the event.
The book is about Laina, a widow and college lecturer who goes on early retirement. She finds life an uphill struggle while she waits to receive her pension and resorts to menial jobs to make ends meet. In similar dire straits is Zira, a young man made redundant.
Zira survives through working as a hooker, an errands boy for a real estate firm. This multi-tasking leaves him little time to start family life until he meets Laina’s niece, a school-leaver hunting for a job.
This is a story about the mad routes to survival taken by people who find themselves out of employment.
Her first book, Militant Shadow, was published in 1996, followed by Now I Can Play and The Trail in 1999 and 2000 respectively. She published Start With Me in 2011 as well as an anthology of poems and short stories by Zimbabwe Female Writers.
“I am into art for the fun of it. I am passionate about writing. I am a social commentator who reacts to life’s happenings through art. My themes are inspired by things that affect people everyday. Saskum Express narrates mad ways in which people try to make ends meet when they get unemployed. It is sad to note that most people who have good educational qualifications are roaming around streets struggling to survive,” said the former Belvedere Teachers’ College lecturer.
She added that her life experiences as a woman inspire her to come up with the well-crafted books.
“People say I am a feminist. I enjoy writing about women and their day-to-day hassles,” she said.
Online Reporter