Rabi and Mohato go through the most. Theirs is an arranged marriage that literally comes full circle in the entire novel. It is the kind of couple that you will either REALLY love or REALLY hate, or try to journey yourself into understanding them as a couple. It is highly unlikely that you will feel indifferent about them. Their challenges are bigger than themselves because even people who chose to marry one another will not endure half of the drama that happens in Rabi’s and Mohato’s relationship: yes, it is bigger than just mere cheating. Reahile puts a real spanner in the works for these two as a couple. He brings with him, a whole new experience of love that is unknown in this relationship. The fact of the matter is that Rabi and Mohato survive the changes that Reahile brings into their lives, but the “how” aspect of this survival is what truly shakes the reader.

Trust me when I say that you were never ready for the journey that Gugu and Zethembe take you on in their marriage. The reason for this is because they go through what the ‘modern’ black couple goes through on an ordinary Tuesday.

What you have to understand about the events that take place in this book is that they are not far-fetched at all. These are events that can easily take place in your life tomorrow. The manner in which we respond to the events that take place in our lives prove everything we have to say about ourselves when life is seen to be a breeze.

Gugu and Zethembe embody exactly that. They are your regular “boy meets girl” couple. Then they grow into “boy marries girl” and “girl and boy could not have been more in love”. All it takes to crack their relationship is an event that is out of both their control and they honestly just have to answer to… the manner in which Gugu answers to this relationship-changing event in her marriage magnifies the cracks in her role as a wife to Zethembe.

If you are a married woman reading this book, you will know first-hand what it is like to be Gugu at some point: to be at a point in your marriage where you are unsure why your marriage deserves to see another day, yet you still want it to see another year and your husband is no longer interested in making it see another hour.

There is a lot of learning about selflessness that takes place in Gugu’s and Zethembe’s love. And as hopeful as we wish to be, one life-changing event makes Gugu’s life take a turn for the worst.

We meet two best friends, Gugu and Rabi. Their friendship has stood the test of time since university. Their connection is genuine; however, like every other true friendship, it is shaken by some truths that they are not afraid to tell each other.

Many people will tell you that a true friend is someone who pushes you to take another good look at yourself in the mirror, and perhaps remove the log in your eye before you see the speck in someone else’s eye. These friends do just that with one another. However, where does one draw the line between telling someone the truth because of how well they know you AND someone using the flaws that they know about you and tell you the truth in a hurtful manner? This is another journey that one embarks on in the novel through the chronicles of Gugu’s and Rabi’s friendship.

The journey, however, is not this narrow…

It is enticed with betrayal and the controversy of forgiveness no matter what.