In writing Mother to Mother, Sindiwe Magona drew inspiration from a real event: the murder of a white American named Amy Biehl by young black men in 1990s South Africa. The crime caused shockwaves around the world, not least because Biehl herself had come to South Africa to combat apartheid—the system of segregation and discrimination that relegated black South Africans, as well as other people of color, to second-class citizenship.On the face of it, then... Read Mother to Mother Summary

No Easy Walk to Freedom: Speeches, Letters, and Other Writings is a collection of essays, speeches, letters, and trial transcripts that the anti-apartheid activist and eventual South African president Nelson Mandela wrote between 1953 and 1964. The collection was first published by Heinemann Educational Books in 1965, with Penguin Books publishing the edited version (including Ato Quayson’s Introduction and editorial notes) in 2002. The original publication as well as the edited version include the 1964... Read No Easy Walk to Freedom Summary

Originally published in 1999, No Future Without Forgiveness is the memoir of Desmond Mpilo Tutu. Tutu won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1984 for his efforts to end apartheid in South Africa. He served as Archbishop of the Anglican Church in Cape Town and later chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which President Mandela established to help address the atrocities of apartheid.Although Tutu’s memoir focuses on his work with the TRC between 1995... Read No Future Without Forgiveness Summary

Now Is the Time for Running is a middle-grade novel by Michael Williams. Originally published in South Africa in 2009 as The Billion Dollar Soccer Ball, it was republished internationally with its current title in 2011. Williams, a South African author who also runs an opera house, was inspired to write the novel after a series of xenophobic attacks in South Africa in 2008. During that time, around 45,000 refugees and asylum seekers, many of... Read Now is the Time for Running Summary

South African author Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014) published the short story “Once Upon a Time” in 1989 while South Africa was still under apartheid, an institutionalized system of racism that from 1948 until 1994 discriminated against all people who were not white. Gordimer was the daughter of Jewish immigrants. Though not an Afrikaner (a South African descended from 17th-century Dutch colonizers), Gordimer was white and therefore part of South Africa’s ruling minority. Gordimer wrote about characters... Read Once Upon a Time Summary

Nadine Gordimer’s “Six Feet of the Country” is one of the seven short stories in her collection of the same name (1956). Gordimer, who was born and lived in South Africa, often explored the country’s racial issues in the context of apartheid. She received numerous literary awards, including the 1991 Nobel Prize for Literature. This short story concerns the death of a native of Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe). When the young man’s family wants to give... Read Six Feet of the Country Summary

In The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, co-authors Douglas Abrams, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu share their discussion on the nature of joy and the methods to achieve it in the face of adversity. Originally published in 2016, this work falls within the genre of spiritual and self-help literature. The Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, and Archbishop Tutu, a leader in the fight against... Read The Book of Joy Summary

The Elephant Whisperer: My Life With the Herd in the African Wild (2009) is a memoir by Lawrence Anthony, detailing his experiences with rehabilitating a traumatized herd of elephants on his game reserve in South Africa. The book explores themes of bonding and communicating with animals, the inherent interconnectedness of nature, and the challenges of conservation efforts.Anthony was an internationally renowned conservationist and environmentalist. He was the co-owner and head of conservation at the Thula... Read The Elephant Whisperer Summary

The Grass is Singing is a powerful novel that explores several poignant topics, including human relationships, power struggles, and the effects of racism. The novel is set in Southern Rhodesia (present-day South Africa) and explores the lives of its inhabitants during white rules in the county. The novel was Lessing’s debut novel and helped to propel her to the literary success. Her treatment of desire, drive, and need regarding individuals, communities and even nations is... Read The Grass is Singing Summary

South African novelist Zakes Mda published his satirical work The Heart of Redness in 2000. In the novel, Mda blends history, myth, and realist fiction to portray a South African village over a 150-year span. In 1856, a 15-year-old girl from kwaXhosa named Nongqawuse told her uncle, Mhlakaza, that she had encountered the spirits of two of her ancestors. These spirits told the young girl that if the amaXhosa killed all their cattle, destroyed their... Read The Heart Of Redness Summary

The Lives of Animals is a metafiction novella written by the award-winning novelist and Professor of English J. M. Coetzee with accompanying reflections presented by Marjorie Garber, Peter Singer, Wendy Doniger, and Barbara Smuts. The Lives of Animals was first presented as a two-part lecture series at the 1997-1998 Tanner Lectures at Princeton University and was later published as a novella in 1999. The novella follows aging fiction author Elizabeth Costello as she gives lectures... Read The Lives of Animals Summary

The Maid’s Diary is an adult thriller by Loreth Anne White. White lives in Canada and divides her time between the Vancouver area and a ski resort in the Coastal Mountains, both of which feature as settings for The Maid’s Diary. Originally a journalist, White is a prolific author and has written dozens of novels in the mystery and thrillers genres, selling over 3 million books globally. She has been nominated for multiple awards and... Read The Maid's Diary Summary

Content Warning: This story contains racism and gun violence.“The Moment Before the Gun Went Off” is a short story by the South African Novel Prize-winning author Nadine Gordimer. Gordimer’s writing often addresses the evils of systematized racism in South Africa. This short story was published in 1988, toward the end of what is known as South Africa’s apartheid period. The word apartheid, which means “separation” in Afrikaans, refers to the government policy in South Africa... Read The Moment Before the Gun Went Off Summary

The Other Side of Truth is a young adult novel by South African writer Beverley Naidoo that was published in 2000. The work is set in both Nigeria and in London, and it takes place after the 1995 Nigerian execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a writer and activist who spoke out against Nigeria’s military government’s corruption. Sade is the novel’s protagonist. The story is written in the third person, and it follows the journey of Sade... Read The Other Side of Truth Summary

The Power of One (1989) is a Bildungsroman written by Australian author Bryce Courtenay, largely based on the life and experiences of the author who grew up on a small farm in the Lebombo Mountains in South Africa. It was the only novel published by the author for an American market. He noted that “American publishers [. . .] are interested in books [set] in their own country first and foremost,” but his novel was... Read The Power of One Summary

“The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses” by Bessie Head is a short story about political activists incarcerated during the South African apartheid. Inspired by her childhood in South Africa as a biracial child when interracial union was illegal, Head’s work deals primarily with racism and its psychological and emotional impact. “The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses” discusses themes of The Duality of Indoctrination and Dehumanization, Community Versus Individualism, and The Tension of Apartheid and Racial Discrimination. The... Read The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses Summary

The Promise, published in 2021, is South African writer Damon Galgut’s eighth novel. Galgut’s fiction frequently explores the complicated world of South African society and politics, particularly the legacy of apartheid. The Promise tells the story of the Swarts, a white family descended from Dutch settlers who came to South Africa in the 17th century. The three Swart children come of age in the 1990s during apartheid, a system that formally segregated South Africans by... Read The Promise Summary

The Road to Mecca is a play by South African playwright Athol Fugard. It was first performed in 1984, won a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1988, and was adapted into a film in 1991. Based on the real-life story of Helen Martins, a South African woman whose home, “The Owl House,” is still open to the public, Fugard’s play explores themes of freedom versus oppression, trust, and the conflict between the self... Read The Road to Mecca Summary

The Smell of Apples, the first novel by South African writer Mark Behr, was originally published in 1993 in Afrikaner, before being published in English translation in 1995 to international acclaim. It won numerous prestigious literary prizes, most notably the M-Net Literary Award for best South African novel; the Betty Trask Award for best first novel published in the British Commonwealth; and the Art Seidenbaum Award for best English-language first novel, presented by The Los... Read The Smell of Apples Summary

Originally published under a pseudonym in 1883, Olive Schreiner’s The Story of an African Farm provides an account of colonial life in 19th-century South Africa. The novel uses the omniscient narration style typical of 19th-century Realism but blends elements of a bildungsroman and philosophical fiction in telling the story of cousins Lyndall and Em and their friendship with Waldo, the son of the farm’s German overseer. As the children grow older, the novel explores themes... Read The Story of an African Farm Summary