11 Quotes & Sayings By Petina Gappah

Petina Gappah was born in Zimbabwe, but grew up in South Africa. She came to the UK to study law at the age of 17, but her thirst for knowledge led her to take a degree in creative writing at Manchester University. The result of that degree was her first novel, The Watermelon Girl, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. Her second novel, The Love Witch – published by Faber and Faber – was shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize and longlisted for the 2015 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and the Orange Prize for Fiction 2015 Read more

It has been translated into thirty languages and won praise from reviewers and readers alike: 'Gappah is a writer of rare gifts,' said The New York Times; 'Beautifully written and deeply moving,' said The Guardian; 'A breathtaking debut' – The Financial Times; 'A most original novel' – ELLE Magazine; 'One of the best books I've ever read' – Marie Claire Magazine; 'Petina Gappah is a genius' – People Magazine.

1
This is one of the consequences of a superior education, you see. In this independent, hundred-per-cent-empowered and fully and totally indigenous blacker-than-black country, a superior education is one that the whites would value, and as whites do not value local languages at the altar of what the whites deem supreme. So it was in colonial times, and so it remains, more than thirty years later. Petina Gappah
2
I had never seen so many books gathered in a single space as I saw in that room. I felt less afraid when I thought of all the other people who seemed to have had harder lives than mine. I disappeared completely to occupy the world of whatever book I was reading. Petina Gappah
3
Later, as she drove the children to school, she thought how worn the grooves were along which they moved their quarrels. She could feel herself saying all the clichéd phrases of a thousand injured women before her, but she could never stop herself. - ‘The Negotiated Settlement Petina Gappah
4
Each heartbreak is a little death, all the same. Petina Gappah
5
Like the worthless dogs that are his countrymen, my husband believed that his penis was wasted if he was faithful to just one woman. - At the Sound of the Last Post Petina Gappah
6
It may well be that there will be this socialism, Juliana, ’ she said, ‘but I can tell you right now that no amount of socialism will make my madam was her own underwear.’ - ‘Aunt Juliana’s Indian Petina Gappah
7
People always ask me how I manage to find humor in so much bleakness. I think this is almost a necessary skill to have. Petina Gappah
8
I was eight when independence happened. I remember my mum and dad getting dressed up to go to the independence concert to go listen to Bob Marley. Independence was such a wonderful time we had so many expectations of the kind of country we would become. The vision of the government then was a wonderful vision. Petina Gappah
9
I was one of the first six black kids to integrate a formerly all-white school. I remember being looked at all the time and people laughing at my hair. I was also very self-conscious about the food I had for lunch. I had egg sandwiches, and the other mothers gave kids fancy stuff like bologna and Marmite. It took about a year to settle in. Petina Gappah
10
If I truly had the courage of my convictions, I would be a full-blown comic novelist. Petina Gappah