YOU MAY LOOK at the cover of Zibu Sithole’s third ‘Zola’ book and think ‘ugh, chick lit’ or ‘yay, chick lit’, and either way, you’d be correct. However, this is ‘chick lit’ or, better still, literature for young women, written with an astuteness and a sense of cynicism that will keep even the readers who utterly deny any inclination to writing of this genre, secretly turning pages well into the night, to find out what happens next.
Love, Zola develops on the story of Zola, a twenty-something industrial engineer turned events planner from Voslorus and the good-looking, sexy and wealthy Mbali who is her fiancé but also happens to be the ex of her current boss Okuhle. It’s a hilarious and relatable rollick in the messy field of family politics, which takes on the opinionated mamas and the tempestuous and controlling dads with the kind of nimbleness that makes you glad you’re not in Zola’s shoes. Sithole’s writing is strong and tight and her story line is unpredictable and deeply satisfying in its nuances.
In many ways, Sithole takes on the mantle of a contemporary South African Jane Austen in her work. The grand narrative in it all is the idea of a young woman nursing dreams of “Being the Bride” and living happily ever after. The first part, of course, is the headline and the rest, taken for granted.
The bits and pieces of lobola and the behaviour of people who lay claims to Zola’s life decisions, interfering friends and other enemies are par for the course, and represent the different flavours of what Zola is up against. This is not to forget Zola’s her renegade sister, Thobile, her cousin Zozo who finds herself in a situation where she is the most unlikely umfundisi on the block, married as she is, to a pastor, but with another guy’s baby in tow. And that’s just Zola’s generation.
Then there’s the food her mum cooks that always has a healthy dollop of onion soup powder and mild curry in it, which renders fowl, fish and beef indistinguishable but equally comforting, as it all smells of home. And there’s the shaming: When she wears a dress with a bit of cleavage to meet her future in-laws, she skirts disaster. When she refuses to discuss her maternal ambitions with her boss, she faces the prospect of being cancelled, or worse.
And then there’s Mbali’s folks who, too have a very young child, produced within the interstices of the wealthy estate where they live. Who takes ownership of who when a wedding is on the table represents a whole monster of social cliché, which Sithole takes by the horns and conquers, with aplomb. And yes, there’s a bit of that Dear John element to the tale, but there are twists in it that will take you by surprise and make you anticipate more books in this series.
Sithole is a delicious writer who crafts her characters with an informed mix of knowledge, love, earnestness and hilarity, offering a beautiful mirror to our silly world. It’s ‘chick lit’ at its most delightful. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and it offers a warm side glance and a gloss of unjudging humanity on women who do.
- Love, Zola is written by Zibu Sithole and published in 2025 by Pan Macmillan, Johannesburg.