Sulaula Sisters - by Tej Rae (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

New Yorker Mara Bader moves to Zambia to teach teens Lifeskillz through soccer. Zambia offers her everything she was missing from her life in America-a sense of community and humanity. Enchanted, Mara wants to be Zambian. She learns to cook nshima like her Zambian sisters, dresses in local fabrics and falls in love with the charming, unpredictable son of an ex-minister.

Kezzy unlocks the door to Zambian culture for her, in more ways than one. They marry, with two sons following in short order. Six years later, and Mara's already an expert in ignoring the click click click sound coming from behind the bathroom door as Kezzy texts his girlfriend. When Loveness, his mistress, confronts her, Mara makes an unusual, ill-fated choice.

Salaula Sisters explores the vagaries of modern-day Zambia, a cross-cultural marriage, and an unusual alliance.

About the Author

Tej Rae is an award-winning writer and former English teacher based in Lusaka. Since 1999, she has lived in Zambia, Senegal, the UAE, Italy, and Ethiopia with her husband and two children. Her bilingual children's book Sirens, set in Addis Ababa, came out in 2021. It led to a feature on BBC Amharic the following year. A second Amharic-English children's book, Spaced, followed. Her action-adventure film script, Abyssinia Steel, has won three awards. In 2025, she published Tigerfish, an illustrated middle grade chapter book set in Zambia. It became the number one bestseller at two Exclusive Books outlets in South Africa that summer.
These days, Tej is growing Lusaka's literary scene through LIT LSK. She runs writing workshops and pop-up book events featuring Catalyst and Modjaji titles. She's also completing an MFA at the University of Cape Town. Salaula Sisters is her debut novel.