A review of The Silence Between Mother’s Day Cards by Matshiamo Teke
Some words are whispered so gently that you don’t notice they’re wounding you until years later. For Masedi, that word is barren. The first time she hears it, it comes wrapped in kindness at a church gate, offered as a prayer. It won’t be the last.
Matshiamo Teke’s debut novel opens with a young couple in Moletjie, freshly married, laughing in bed about whether they’ll have twins. Their home smells of “sunlight and Sunlight soap,” and the future feels guaranteed. Then the questions begin. They start as polite smiles after Sunday service, then turn into advice, then into whispers at the water tap. Before long, a mother-in-law who arrives “carrying inspection” is asking what Masedi is really for.
This is not simply a book about infertility. It’s about what happens to a marriage when silence moves in. It’s about how a community can love you and hurt you in the same breath, and what it costs a woman to keep smiling at baby showers. Teke writes with a tenderness that makes you ache, and she knows how much power a small moment can hold: a squeeze of the hand during prayer, a plate of cake carried outside, a question nobody should have asked in public.
And then there’s Khensani, Masedi’s best friend, who steals every scene she walks into. She’s blunt, hilarious and fiercely loyal, the friend every hurting woman deserves.
The book is inspired by the author’s own journey, and you can feel it on every page. This story doesn’t hand out easy answers. It builds toward something braver.
If you’ve ever been asked “When are the children coming?” this book will feel like being seen. And if you’ve ever been the one asking, you need to read it even more. To get yourself a copy, click here!
