God Has His Favourites by Sukoluhle Nontokozo Mdlongwa

Hlengiwe Ntuli knows two things to be true: her father died before she was born, and her mother's magwinya stand at the taxi rank is keeping them alive.

Raised by a single mother in a rented shack in Coronation, Witbank, Hlengiwe has learned to value even the smallest blessings of life. But when she is suddenly orphaned at sixteen, Hlengiwe is left with a funeral to plan and a shack full of secrets. Among her mother's belongings, she uncovers a truth that rewrites her entire life: she has a wealthy maternal family, and her father isn't dead at all. He is married with three kids who have never heard of their long-lost sibling.

Thrust between two worlds that don't readily claim her, Hlengiwe is too township for her polished maternal relatives, and too much of a reminder of the sodded past for her father and his perfect family. In the midst of grieving her mother, alone, and rejected, she begins to question God's purpose for her life.

At school, she clings to the only things that are still hers: a shot at a life-changing scholarship, her place as lead singer in the school choir, and a fragile new love with Duncan Jacobs, the kind boy whose laugh makes Coronation feel less heavy.

But love built on secrets never stays simple. When the skeletons of her parents' past begin to tumble out of the proverbial closet, Hlengiwe uncovers a tangled history that threatens to destroy her father's marriage and shatter Duncan's family too.

God's Has His Favourites is a moving story of love, test of faith, identity, and belonging. It is a story about a girl who must decide whether finding where you come from is worth losing where you are going.