It is such a pleasure to read a self-publish book that is not littered with grammatical errors. Throughout the years of my book reviewing experience, most of the self-publish that I have reviewed are littered with grammatical errors from page to page, forcing me to edit while I am reading- which is not my job nor that of any reader for that matter. The job of a reader is to read and it ends there.
I must admit that I had the same expectations with this book. However, in Godfrey Malibe’s third offering titled The Poacher’s Daughter, not only there are no grammatical errors, but the story is exquisite and easily relatable.
Set in a place called Bolla-Tau in the Mpumalanga province, The Poacher’s Daughter tracks the story of an orphan young lady called Mmanaka, whose early childhood experiences left her with only one decision- to make a success of her life.
While this is a typical story of the challenges faced by many young girls after they lose their parents- becoming a parent to your siblings, striking balance between school and taking care of the household, teenage pregnancy, being an easy target of sugar daddies and many more. However, it is the way in which Godfrey narrates Mmanaka’s story which makes this book an inspirational and educative reading for many young girls confronted by similar circumstances as Mmanaka.
I liked the fact that Godfrey brought the story closer to his home village, making the characters and the storyline more relatable to those around his community.
While this is a work of fiction, however, as a reader, this is one story that you can easily see that comes from the author’s life journey experiences.
I think the only bummer for me, besides the book being very short (108-page), is the fact that the pace of the story is insane- in a bad way. You are quickly transported from one scene to the next scene with so many gaps in between the scenes. This thus leaves the reader with so many questions. And this in some way exposed the fact this is Godrey’s first work of fiction. I honestly believe that he dismally failed to create a slow narrative that drives the plot nicely along.
Besides that, The Poacher’s Daughter is a book that will save many souls. The scribe should think about following it up with a sequel.