A Novel About the Secrets and Silence About AIDS

"As AIDS affects a growing number of women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa, a timely novel has been released by firsttime Zimbabwean author Lutanga Shaba which tackles the subject of women's vulnerability to HIV.
Entitled 'Secrets of a Woman's Soul', the novel recounts the story of Beata, a mother struggling to ensure a bright future for her daughter Linga. Told from Linga's perspective, the novel is based on actual events in Salisbury, as the capital of Harare was known during the colonial era. It moves back and forth in time as Linga, who is preparing to bury her mother, recalls her childhood and the sacrifices made by Beata.
Determined to earn enough money to further the education of her daughter, Beata finds herself forced to have sex with an unscrupulous man in exchange for a job. Ultimately, she contracts HIV.
Without any hint of moralizing - and with unexpected touches of humor- the novel lays bare the fact that calls for abstinence or 'condomising', central to AIDS initiatives for women, often mean little to those who are poor and powerless. "

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