For Botswana, I read Call and Response, a collection of short stories by Gothataone Moeng. Moeng was born in Serowe, Botswana and the stories take place in her home village and the capitol city of Gaborone.

I cannot say enough good things about this book.

The writing style was engaging and sucked me in. I could–and did–sit for hours with this book, losing track of time and my surroundings.

Each short story was captivating on its own. The author is working on a novel, and although I was satisfied by each story, I could also have read an entire novel about each character. But as a collection, the stories hung together with tiny links. In one story, a girl is upset that her dying aunt has moved into her bedroom, and in another, an aunt who was living abroad moves into her niece’s bedroom. A widow mourns her young husband who was killed when his car struck a cattle in the road, and in a later story, a wife tells her husband to be careful and watch for cattle on the road. I kept thinking about how we are all linked together despite our differences.

The stories explored a rich array of themes mined from the lives of women, including grief, duty to one’s elders, the bonds of family, the role of tradition in a changing Botswana, and the effects of colonialism. It made me think about the universal issues that affect all women, but also made me keenly aware that women in Botswana are dealing with traditions and social mores I can only imagine.

I learned a lot about life in contemporary Botswana, glimpsing the rites and traditions surrounding birth, marriage, and death. The setting was described so well, that when I looked up photos of Botswana, they matched the movie in my mind. There were familiar details, like social media and Kentucky Fried Chicken, and there were issues I have never experienced, like the water being turned off in a city neighborhood or men leaving town to visit their cattle. It was the perfect book for my Read Around the World quest.