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March 17, 2014 | by Shafinaaz

Sophia

SoPhia: a novel, is set between Johannesburg and Mauritius. It is the story of Zarreen Kader and her husband Majid Akram Noorani, or Mak. Within the bounds of an abusive marriage, Zarreen vows never to let her parents know about the abuse. Her parents are happy when she’s happy. Mostly, she denies that it has any effect on her three children. Until the cracks begin to show and her life begins to fall apart. Will they as a family be able to cope when the underlying stories reveal themselves? Zarreen travels to the island of Mauritius where her Sufi grandfather once lived, searching for answers. Akram must face the dark reality of his past or be engulfed by it. As these stories occur side by side, we see how pain and compassion are necessary companions.SoPhia is not just a romance, but it is a love story, a story of self-realisation and engaged humanity.

Shafinaaz

Shafinaaz Hassim is a sociologist based in Johannesburg. She is the author of Daughters are Diamonds: Honour, Shame & Seclusion -- A South African Perspective (2007), Memoirs for Kimya (2009), and the critically acclaimed novel on domestic violence SoPhia (2012). She is also the editor of the Belly of Fire anthologies for social change series, which was launched in 2011. Her research focuses on biographical narrative in the interplay between personal and political spaces and she writes both fiction and non-fiction. She has lectured and presented seminars at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, Humboldt University in Berlin and at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. - See more at: http://shafinaaz.co.za/category/gender/#sthash.wLoHxRN1.dpuf