If You Want to Make God Laugh
In a squatter camp on the outskirts of Johannesburg, seventeen-year-old Zodwa lives in desperate poverty, under the shadowy threat of a civil war and a growing AIDS epidemic. Eight months pregnant, Zodwa carefully guards secrets that jeopardize her life.
Across the country, wealthy socialite Ruth appears to have everything her heart desires, but it's what she can't have that leads to her breakdown. Meanwhile, in Zaire, a disgraced former nun, Delilah, grapples with a past that refuses to stay buried. When these personal crises send both middle-aged women back to their rural hometown to heal, the discovery of an abandoned newborn baby upends everything, challenging their lifelong beliefs about race, motherhood, and the power of the past.
As the mystery surrounding the infant grows, the complicated lives of Zodwa, Ruth, and Delilah become inextricably linked. What follows is a mesmerizing look at family and identity that asks: How far will the human heart go to protect itself and the ones it loves?
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Community Reviews
If You Want to Make God Laugh by Bianca Marais
423 pages
What’s it about?
This novel is set in South Africa as Apartheid ends and the AIDS crisis begins. Zodwa is just 17-years-old and living in a squatters camp outside of Johannesburg when she gives birth to a son. Not far away, two white middle aged sisters have both separately returned to the family farm to recover from personal setbacks. Who knows what to expect when a baby is discovered on their doorstep.
What did it make me think about?
This book touches on so many different topics- poverty, racism, AIDS, fear, and family just being a few.
Should I read it?
Bianca Marais can write a story! I really enjoyed Hum if You Don't Know the Words and I have been looking forward to reading this book as well. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy going back and forth from three different perspectives but I quickly forgot all about it. Learning something about South Africa through these novels has been so interesting. I would definitely recommend this book.
Quote-
"Zodwa allows herself to be rocked as her mother cries. She can't help but think that sometimes it's easier to stagger under the weight of our heaviest burdens with our heads bowed down, just so we don't have to witness the pain that our suffering causes those who love us most."
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Hum If You Don't Know The Words by Bianca Marais
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Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
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