In Conversation with Bessie Head shows how reading the novels and letters of Botswanas most influential writer Bessie Head fosters an ongoing conversation between reader and writer and is in fact a very personal undertaking. Each chapter tackles two parallel threads the first regarding Mary S. Lederers own history of reading Headfrom her first purchase of Maru through completing a Ph.D. on Heads trilogy through living in Botswana and connecting with various aspects of Heads life to examining how reading Head has affected her own development as a human being. This history then ties each chapter into discussion of how Head develops her own vision of the brotherhood of man. Alongside critically informed discussion Heads vision is examined through the prism of specific questions. Why is madness not a useful concept for understanding Heads ideas Why did Head say she was not a feminist and what is the significance of male and female in her novels What is the relationship between individual race and community How can the nature of God be a clear expression of love but also an indistinct force for both good and evil Heads novels present opportunities for personal growth and through these conversations with her we become different readers.