Butterfly Burning

It is a romantic story that follows the life of construction worker Fumbatha, who falls in love with Phephelaphi, a much younger woman.

After gaining a position at a neighbourhood nursing school, she learns she is pregnant and no longer qualified for the class.

Butterfly Burning received enthusiastic critical attention, with World Literature Today describing it as "richly poetic while also brutally realistic...a compelling work of fiction", and Michelle Cliff writing in the Voice Literary Supplement: "Vera explodes myths of womanhood and romance, and realistically and unsentimentally depicts the price women may pay for their longing to become someone, to decolonize themselves.

In 2003, the book was selected for special recognition for a foreign author in the Italian Premio Feronia-Citta di Fiano award.

It was identified as one of Africa’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century in 2002, by a collaborative project involving several African literary organisations.