About Call and Response
Richly drawn stories about the lives of ordinary families in contemporary Botswana as they navigate relationships, tradition and caretaking in a rapidly changing world.
A young widow adheres to the expectations of wearing mourning clothes for nearly a year, though she’s unsure what the traditions mean or whether she is ready to meet the world without their protection. An older sister returns home from a confusing time in America, only to explain at every turn why she’s left the land of opportunity. A younger sister hides her sexual exploits from her family, while her older brother openly flaunts his infidelity.
The stories collected in Call and Response are strongly anchored in place – in the village of Serowe, where the author is from, and in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana – charting the emotional journeys of women seeking love and opportunity beyond the barriers of custom and circumstance.
Gothataone Moeng is part of a new generation of writers coming out of Africa whose voices are ready to explode onto the literary scene. In the tradition of writers like Chimamanda Adiche and Jhumpa Lahiri, she offers us insight into communities, experiences and landscapes through stories that are cinematic in their sweep, with unforgettable female protagonists.
- Complete Title: Call and Response
- Format: Hardcover
- Language: English
- Number of Pages: 304
- Publication Time: February 7, 2023
- Publisher: Viking
- ISBN: 0593490983
- ISBN13: 9780593490983
About Gothataone Moeng
Gothataone Moeng
Gothataone Moeng was born in Serowe, Botswana. She was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Fiction, a Summer Workshop scholar at Tin House, and an Emerging Writer Fellow at A Public Space. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in American Short Fiction, One Story, Virginia Quarterly Review, A Public Space, Ploughshares and Oxford American. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Mississippi.
Reviews Call and Response
BookOfCinz
Bustling with life, energy, we meet fresh characters from contemporary Botswana teaching us about love, loss, family, rejection and redemption. Gothataone Moeng’s Call and Response is a debut co…
Siria
A debut collection of short stories set in contemporary Botswana. Gothataone Moeng has often vivid turns of phrase and a real knack for letting a character’s words and actions show us who they are. I…
Lauren Fanella
3.5⭐️…
Crystal
DNF after the 1st story. I really wanted to like this short story collection but the protagonist of the first story othering her disabled/dying aunt by referring to her as ‘the patient’ and shunning h…
2TReads
I really enjoyed the ways in which women were central in these stories, the vulnerable, the unsure, the brave, the questioning, and the unlikable. They were here searching for their places in society…
Sarah
When I realised that I had picked up a book of short stories I very nearly put it to the bottom of my to-read pile, I am so glad I didn’t. The stories were both entertaining and fascinating. I learned…
Mihiret
These are powerful, precise stories, set in Botswana. The collection is well-named, because there are multiple call and response rhythms running throughout all the stories–between the narrators and t…
cat
Loved these short stories set in Botswana- and especially Small Wonders and Bodies, which were standouts for me. The first story didn’t grab me but as I continued I became invested in all of the chara…
Laura
I wasn’t super engaged plot-wise, but the world Moeng sets her stories in is very interesting and new to me. Additionally, her writing is beautiful – her craft of sentence construction and use of lang…