So grateful for this wonderful review of Things that Cause Inappropriate Happiness in Swamp Pink

I’m incredibly grateful to Michela Polito of Swamp Pink Literary Journal (one of my favourite literary journals ever) for this generous and thoughtful review of my Guernica Editions short story collection, Things That Cause Inappropriate Happiness. I nearly cried reading this, thank you so, so much.

“In Things That Cause Inappropriate Happiness, Danila Botha writes with wit, grit and a sort of fictional, nonconformity, that resists easy labels. Across this generous collection, she unpacks a range of themes from alienation, identity, intergenerational trauma, and a sense of displacement delivered through historical fiction, magic, and raw realism… that specific tone, the gift of being able to talk about existential and historical disasters with an absurdist comic flair is one of the collection’s greatest strengths.… Memory and trauma are essential to the other stories in the collection as well… Botha masterfully creates a strong generational, cultural frame, pointing out her cultural self-awareness.… Although other stories break the mould of traditional plot structure…this never happens at the cost of engagement, and they remain emotionally, gripping throughout… Reading this collection is like listening to a cassette from the 90s. Side A leans more towards the entanglement with Jewish heritage. It’s ghosts it’s humour and it’s pain. Side B means more towards present day, emotional depth, and realism. Bullying this empowered, mothers, toxic school, cohorts, fake friends and the sharp edges of adult relationships feel like a single soul transmigrating across stories always evolving, but holding tight to their core… Things That Cause Inappropriate Happiness is a book full of visceral and filtered emotions and in today’s world that feels like a breath of fresh air.”

You can read the review in full here, thank you so much again

https://swamp-pink.charleston.edu/things-that-cause-inappropriate-happiness/