BOOK REVIEW: The Story of Maha by Sumayya Lee

I like how the story incorporates slang and Gujarati into the book without really bothering to explain what the words mean and letting you infer from the context of it. PHOTO| FILE| NATION MEDIA GROUP

Curious about what it is like to be Indo-South African and growing up in Durban in the middle of a struggle for freedom, a schism of religion and traditionalism and trying to find your identity after your parents’ early death?

Well, I was too – interested in that whole handful of a sentence, I mean. The Story of Maha is about, well, Maha, and being a teenager living with her strict grandparents while going to school and growing up, all the while knowing that after a certain point, she will be expected to promptly get married to A Suitable Boy.

I like how the story incorporates slang and Gujarati into the book without really bothering to explain what the words mean and letting you infer from the context of it (but there’s an appendix at the back). Will Maha ever find true love, or will she take after her rebel mother and chart her own path? Aren’t all Suitable Boys boring, or old, or fat, anyway? And what’s with her evil aunty next door?