At a Book Bazaar in Soma Book Café in Dar es Salaam, author of Love Bombs Richard Mabala and writer of Karafu Nahida Esmail officially launched their books. Both were finalists in the BURT award for fiction. It was an afternoon of conversations on the challenges and merits of young adult literature in Tanzania.
Love Bombs is about teenager Marietta, whose naive yet soulful antics give this novel's serious topics a down-to-earth feel. Mabala paints the landscape of modern middle- and working-class families of Tanzania. Striding the fine line between advocacy and fiction, his characters are neither saints nor heroes, but relatable human beings.
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