Branching Streams Flow in the Dark is 164 paged novel written by Charles Mungoshi in 2013. The story unfolds through a letter written by the main character Serina Maseko to and old school friend Fungisai Bare. The story captures the period of time before the advent of Anti Retro Viral Therapy use in the management of the Acquired Immune Defeciency Syndrome (AIDS), when being diagnosed as having the infection was an automatic death sentence. the issues pertaining to denial, stigmatisation and rejection are central to the novel. The book is about living beyond malady. During her darkest and loneliest moment, when her baby dies of AIDS and her husband runs out of the house and her mother is virtually unkind, Serina Maseko sees through herself and others, as if she were beyond pain and reproach. She is floating because during this period, before the advent of Anti Retro Viral Therapy use in the management of the Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), being diagnosed as having the infection is an automatic death sentence.

 

Serina begins to write a very long and winding letter to a long – forgotten school mate, Fungisai Bare. In that letter, Serina forages through her turbulent life and that of people around her, confessing her sins and confronting all the ghosts in her life, searching for certain key moments to hold on to.