The Shipikisha Club

The Shipikisha Club - Hardcover

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The Shipikisha Club
  • The Shipikisha Club
The Shipikisha Club - Hardcover

The Shipikisha Club - Hardcover

by Mubanga Kalimamukwento
$30.19
$30.19

Book Overview

by Mubanga Kalimamukwento (Author)

Kabwe, Zambia: Sali, a working mother of three, stands trial for the murder of her husband, Kasunga. The prosecutor claims Sali shot him after a heated fight in their bedroom. There are no witnesses. Sali pleads not guilty.

But her story does not begin with a gun. It begins fourteen years earlier--with her rebellion against the pressure to find a husband, her affair with a wealthy married man called Doc, and her discovery that she's pregnant on the same day of Doc's unexpected death.

To avoid the shame of being an unwed mother, Sali accepts Kasunga's proposal, and finds herself suddenly thrust into the shipikisha club: her society's expectations that it is a wife's duty to endure. Over the years, Sali navigates her husband's infidelities and alcohol-filled nights, their money troubles, and her postpartum depression in silence. Until the day she speaks her mind, and Kasunga puts a gun in her face.

The trial is a national scandal. Many are called to testify--the maid, Kasunga's mother, and Ntashé, Sali's fifteen-year-old daughter. Even after Sali's diary is dissected and laid bare for all to see, Sali calls no witnesses to her defense. With Kasunga gone, only Sali will ever know the truth. But is the truth enough?

Told through the rotating perspectives of Sali, Ntashé, and Sali's mother Peggy, The Shipikisha Club is a riveting story of gender politics in Zambia and the world at large--a must-read for fans of Peace Adzo Medie, Abi Daré, Tayari P. Jones, and On Becoming a Guinea Fowl.

Number of Pages: 334
Dimensions: 1.2 x 8.5 x 5.5 IN
Publication Date: March 10, 2026
ISBN9781938603754
Author Mubanga Kalimamukwento
PublisherDzanc Books
GenreLiterature
FormatHardcover
PublishedMarch 2026
LanguageENG- English
Pages334
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

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More by Mubanga Kalimamukwento

The Shipikisha Club

The Shipikisha Club - Hardcover

The Shipikisha Club - Hardcover

By Mubanga Kalimamukwento

About Mubanga Kalimamukwento

Mubanga Kalimamukwento is a Zambian attorney and writer. She is the winner of the 2022 Tusculum Review Poetry Chapbook Contest, the 2019 Dinaane Debut Fiction Award, and the 2019 Kalemba Short Story Prize. Her first novel, The Mourning Bird, was listed among the top fifteen debut books of 2019 by Brittle Paper. Her work has also appeared in adda, Aster(ix), Overland, the Red Rock Review, Menelique, on Netflix, and elsewhere.

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