Rachel Zadok

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Rachel Zadok (born 5 October 1972) is a South African writer known for experimental fiction. She is the author of two novels, Gem Squash Tokoloshe and Sister-Sister, and was a Whitbread First Novel Award nominee in 2005.

Zadok was born in South Africa to a South African mother and an Israeli father, and grew up in Kensington, a middle-class suburb of Johannesburg. She studied Fine Art and worked as a freelance graphic designer before moving to London in 2001 with her husband. There she waitressed for a time and worked for an orphans’ charity. She earned a Certificate in Novel Writing from City University, London, and began writing Gem Squash Tokoloshe, a story set in her homeland. She has said the book is about belief and the way society shapes children.

In 2004 she reached the final five of Channel 4’s How to Get Published on Richard & Judy, which led Pan Macmillan to offer her a publishing contract. Gem Squash Tokoloshe was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award.

Zadok returned to South Africa in 2010 and now lives in Cape Town with her husband and daughter. She has spoken about wanting to give back to her country and, in 2011, launched Short Story Day Africa to promote African short fiction. Her second novel, Sister-Sister, was published in 2013 by Kwela Books. Shorter pieces by Zadok have appeared in The Observer, The Jewish Chronicle, The Independent and African Violet, and she contributed to the 2012 Caine Prize Anthology.