The Incidental Author

In Stellenbosch, a few figures are regularly discussed by first name among people they have never actually met. One of them is Eva Mazza, author of the scandalous page-turner Sex, Lies & Stellenbosch.

The term ‘sleeper hit’ is generally used to describe a film that is a runaway success, despite not having a large marketing budget or much pre-promotion. If one is able to extend this definition to include literary works, then Eva Mazza’s sultry first novel would indeed be described as South Africa’s ‘sleeper hit’ of 2019. 

Sex, Lies & Stellenbosch, Mazza’s debut novel, was published in 2019. According to Times Live, it has remained in the top 100 best-sellers in South Africa list, since publication. 

The novel gives a racy glimpse into the lives of Stellenbosch’s elite and has cheekily been described as “written as fiction to protect the innocent” by Mazza’s publisher, Melinda Ferguson. Sex, Lies & Stellenbosch details the fracturing marriage of protagonist, Jen Pearce, to her affluent winemaker husband John, after she finds him in a compromising position with his wine rep, Patty.  

“I just knew that there was something about that book that was great,” said Mazza, as she considered her prescience, one chilly morning in May.

 

“It wasn’t an unusual story. But I just knew that people would love to read it.” 

 

She added a bit of South African flavour to the subject matter and a bit of sex to titillate, and she knew that it would grab the attention of a South African audience. 

“Stellenbosch is a sexy setting,” she said. 

Mazza’s voice is bright and crisp. There’s something jaunty and refreshing about her. Her contrarianism has made her famous. Yet, after two best-sellers (Sex Lies & Stellenbosch and Sex, Lies Declassified) she, modestly, still does not consider herself an author. 

“I’m really not convinced that I’m a writer…I almost call myself an incidental author,” she said. “I just did it for myself, and then I waited and watched what happened afterwards.” 

Small beginnings

Mazza grew up in a small Greek community in Johannesburg. Both of her parents were South African born Greeks. Mazza described the community in which she grew up as “insular”, one which lent itself to a great sense of identity and belonging. 

“We had a diverse circle of friends,” said Mazza. “On the odd Sundays we’d all get together with my mother’s friends and their children.” 

Similar to the Greek community of her childhood, small towns like Stellenbosch attempt to avoid scandals at all costs, she said. People do not like to be the source of a scandal, and when one is imparted from one feverish ear to another, there is almost never a name provided, said Mazza. 

“But with the Greeks, you get to know the names – believe me,” she said with a grin. “That’s how scandals happen.” 

After high school, Mazza attended Wits University in Johannesburg, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dramatic Art, in 1987.  

In those days, a university degree was lauded more than anything, said Mazza. “My parents didn’t really get to study at university,” she said. “And so, both of them, my mother especially – because, according to her university is also where you find your husband – were desperate for me to attend university.” 

In his pleas for her to study at university, her father said she could study whatever she liked, said Mazza.

According to Mazza, drama was the subject that she was most drawn to in school, so it was only natural that that is what she chose to study.

A new chapter 

In 1996, Mazza and her husband Dom, moved to Cape Town where she began teaching drama at several preschools in the area. For two years she taught drama at Sans Souci, St. Annes in Plumstead, and Parklands College. And then, in 1997, the couple moved to Stellenbosch where Mazza continued teaching and began to focus on her writing. 

 

“I’ve always written,” said Mazza. “And I love writing. Other people do other things and, well, I write.”

 

She started Sex, Lies & Stellenbosch two years before she turned 50, she said. The author was on the cusp of 50 and had spent most of her life raising her children when she decided that she wanted to write a play, book and screenplay before turning 50. 

“I’ve managed the play and the book,” said Mazza. “The screenplay…well, I’m hoping that [Sex, Lies & Stellenbosch] could one day be turned into a series.”

Mazza’s fiction is largely concerned with the intimacy of relationships, but it also includes core feminist undertones. “The sex is there,” said Mazza. “I made sure of it. People think that at fifty you’re not a sexual human being, but you very much are…There’s something very appealing about a mature woman.” 

In 2019, Mazza’s Sex, Lies & Stellenbosch took the South African literary scene by storm. And, due to popular demand, Mazza released the much-anticipated sequel, Sex, Lies Declassified earlier in April 2020. 

Forward focused 

During a Zoom call with Mazza on a cold Sunday in May, she revealed that she had finished the first draft of a new novel, Christine. She had begun working on Christine after the publication of her first novel but was forced to put it aside to work on the sequel to Sex, Lies and Stellenbosch, she said. 

“Christine has been sitting and waiting for me, and she’s done.”

Christine is about a young woman who needs to experience life in order to grow, said Mazza. The protagonist of the novel, who unknowingly enters into an abusive relationship, subsequently leaves her marriage and finds herself, she said. “I think it’s a beautiful story,” said Mazza. “It was really written for two of my daughters, Simona and Alexa, and their age-group.”

Mazza is also currently working on the third novel in her Sex, Lies and Stellenbosch trilogy. 

After the publication of her first novel, she became quite self-conscious about writing graphic sex scenes, she said. She is aware that she has children in primary school, who’s friends are sometimes saying “your mom wrote a sex book”.

It doesn’t stop her. 

“The older I get, the braver I get,” said Mazza. “The challenge for me now… is to become less self-conscious about my writing and just pretend that I’m not actually going to publish it. Because, I think, that makes you more authentic as a writer.”