'Crazy and magical': Vanessa Govender on small-town living and new book 'The Village Indian'

Vanessa Govender joins Amy MacIver for an in-depth interview. (Amy standing in for CapeTalk's Sara-Jayne Makwala King)

"Take one over-the-top, bolshie, city-slicker Indian woman. One reticent and reserved white husband. And their three children."

That's the description on the back cover of The Village Indian, the latest book by journalist-turned-author Vanessa Govender.

It follows her children's book The Selfish Shongololo (a story made up for her son), and the memoir Beaten But Not Broken, an intensely personal account of a time when she was in an abusive relationship.

Talking to Amy MacIver, Govender says she would never have foreseen years ago this transition from broadcast journalism to writing.

She describes it as a liberating experience, shifting from telling other people's stories to exploring who she herself is.

"It's been a lovely evolution unfolding from coming from hardcore journalism to being able to just write.... So much of ourselves gets lost in journalism, you're telling other people's stories and here you're able to explore different sides to yourself."

Vanessa Govender, Author - The Village Indian

"In my job I felt an affinity to those stories of real people and their struggles and when I quit mainstream journalism it wasn't because I  was tired of it. I wanted to become a mother and just knew I couldn't do both - a lot of those stories were very traumatic... I needed my sanity and didn't think it would be fair to children to carry that trauma and bring it home."

Vanessa Govender, Author - The Village Indian

Now mother to three children, Vanessa, her husband and their brood live in a small village in KwaZulu-Natal - the village chronicled in her book.

It is a beautiful place, says the author, 'everything you'd expect a small village to be'.

And, it provides the fodder for a lot of talk, gossip and drama, as these small places tend to do.

While Govender at first had planned to write a murder mystery, this soon morphed into writing what was real.

"The problem arose when I couldn't figure out how I was going to make up a murder mystery story... and I thought, why make up stuff when reality is actually stranger than fiction and there are all these amazing, wild things happening? I'd never anticipated for one second that small-town living would be THIS crazy, but magical too at the same time."

Vanessa Govender, Author - The Village Indian

The response from fellow residents who rushed out to get the book has been largely accepting, Govender reports.

"They knew it was coming... and clearly you can see we are all nosy parkers!  I think people appreciate that it's told through my lens, and those who've read it have enjoyed it and found it funny."

Vanessa Govender, Author - The Village Indian

"Of course there are parts that are deeply introspective and people see that. That is important because our stories are not always convenient or comfortable; they're sometimes messy but they are stories nonetheless.'

Vanessa Govender, Author - The Village Indian

Govender still loves living in this unnamed little village, and says she would not change it for the world.

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the full conversation