In this week's edition of Endnotes, we take a look at Kagiso Lesego Molope's We Inherit the Fire, a portrait of the fractured relationship between a mother and her daughter, set against the tumultuous end of apartheid in South Africa.

Here's how the book came together:

Kagiso Lesego Molope

Author

“McClelland & Stewart publisher Stephanie Sinclair was clear with me: she was invested in championing stories of Indigenous people. That gave me freedom to express myself fully as an Indigenous woman—to say, This is a publisher to whom I don’t have to constantly explain myself. It felt as if we had a common goal: to work toward producing the best possible version of the book and hopefully give readers a powerful and most engaging story.”

Rachel Letofsky

Senior Agent, Transatlantic Literary

“I was impressed by Kagiso’s storytelling instincts and the importance of her work—the themes, characters, historical significance, and setting were so vividly rendered on the page. I remember telling her in our first phone call that I thought she was a writer poised on the precipice of—and due—incredible literary success, and I knew that I wanted to represent her.”

Kelly Joseph

Senior Editor, McClelland & Stewart

“We were instantly compelled by Kagiso’s rich, distinct writing and the way it captures both the sweep of a nation’s history and the intimate joys and heartbreaks of the women living it. Most people haven’t seen the devastation of apartheid through the perspectives of women freedom fighters. We knew this was a story our readers would be drawn to as well.”

Rebecca Rocillo

Editorial Assistant, McClelland & Stewart

“One element we really homed in on was bringing out the evocative imagery of each scene. Kagiso has such an incredible knack for creating these intensely vivid snapshots that linger in the memory, not only for their sensory detail but for their specificity of emotion.”

Lisa Jager

Senior Designer, PRH Canada

“I shared about 20 different cover designs. I illustrated some myself; we considered African artists, then explored photos with a focus on a strong woman, which is where we landed. The photo is from a stunning series found on Getty by photographer Lumezia. They are African women photographed in beautifully breezy black-and-white portraits.”