The award-winning author, businesswoman, social activist, and philanthropist prides herself in being the narrator of African tales, ones that derive from the lives of the women and children she has had the honour of meeting.

My inspiration was created from the real-life stories, the experiences of women in those shelters, and from my personal knowledge as well.” Phamotse explains.

“With this book, I had to make sure I understood the story I was telling by spending time at various shelters, which included Bokamoso Youth Centre as well as the Leratong Hospital Shelter. What carries weight in Phamotse work is her research. Phamotse, who has written nine other books, creates work that draws you in because of how closely personal her work is, and with her background in criminology studies, her new work has an incredible take on crime factors in her storytelling. Phamotse’s novels are about the lives of women in South Africa today. The acclaimed author has managed to once again leave you intrigued and anticipating more. Bestselling author Jackie Phamotse, whose Bare series has just reached its fourth volume, Mercy, appears at the Franschhoek Literary Festival to talk about self-publishing and, in conversation with Deon Meyer, the creative process. Phamotse has not failed to bring this outstanding feature in the fourth edition of the franchise. The three other additions of BARE books have shown us some truth about the society we live in. Like any Jackie Phamotse book, it forces you to turn from one page to the next and is nothing short of excellent, as each chapter unfolds you are introduced to a storytelling style like no other. Her fourth book, ‘BARE: Mercy’ introduces us to orphaned girls and the downfall of those powers. Phamotse’s latest book, Liwa, which addresses toxic women who kill, hit the shelves at the beginning of May.While you may be familiar with Phamotse’s, ‘The Blessers Game’ released in 2017, ‘The Cradle of the Hockey Club’ released in 2019, and ‘Ego’ released in 2020 you are yet to be amazed by the teratology addition. There are so many things that can be taken away by the person reading the book,” she added. I speak about rape, sugar daddies, mental health… you know… using alcohol to numb the pain. “I speak about different things in the book, like the brokenness of a family structure. The book looks at the blesser phenomenon that has been trending over recent years. Instead of just asking me, okay can you share your personal story about rape then… but most of them have ulterior motives for attacking me, she continued. “People want to harass me on social media and attack me personally. I get people have different opinions about things written in my book, but for some guy to decide to say to me, ‘No, you were not raped.’ Was he there? Does he want medical records,” Phamotse told TimesLive. Some of the parts are true and some of the events were adapted to form part of the story. “This book is a novel based on a true story. She was also discredited for her rape story. The novel was controversial as she received a fair amount of criticism.

Mercy by jackie phamotse