Brawffe & Badger Books
VVisselKind
Some children are replaced. Some mothers never notice. Set in the Eastern Cape town of Greystone, VVisselkind is a novella about inheritance, identity, and the quiet horror of being seen — or not seen — by the person who should know you best.
HALLOWEEN 2027
In the old stories, a changeling is left in the place of a stolen child; something that looks right but isn't. The family rarely notices. That is the most frightening part.
When Rina disappears from Greystone, her mother Elise grieves in the way she has always done everything: barely. When something returns wearing Rina's face, Elise finds her easier to love than she ever was before. Softer. More obedient. Uncomplicated in all the ways Rina never managed to be.
Only Esther notices. Only Esther remembers what Rina was; the sharp edges, the silences, the particular way she had of taking up space. Only Esther understands that what is sitting at Elise's table is not her daughter.
VVisselkind is a novella about mothers and daughters, about the selves we abandon and the things that fill the space, and about the particular horror of being replaced by something more convenient — and loved more for it.