English books from South Africa
Recommended English books written by authors from South Africa (36)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you speak English here are some English books from South Africa for the next part of the "Read Around The World Challenge".
11.
Going to the Mountain : Life Lessons from My Grandfather, Nelson Mandela by Ndaba Mandela EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
The first-ever book to tell Nelson Mandela's life through the eyes of the grandson who was raised by him, chronicling Ndaba Mandela's life living with, and learning from, one of the greatest leaders and humanitarians the world has ever known. To the rest of the world, Nelson Mandela was a giant: an anti-apartheid revolutionary, a world-renowned humanitarian, and South Africa's first black president. To Ndaba Mandela, he was simply "Granddad." In Going to the Mountain, Ndaba tells how he came to live with Mandela shortly after he turned eleven--having met each other only once, years before, whe... continue
12.
Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
Perfect for readers of The Secret Life of Bees and The Help, a perceptive and searing look at Apartheid-era South Africa, told through one unique family brought together by tragedy. Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a ten-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race, and their meeting should never have ... continue
13.
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
‘There are many suns,’ he said. ‘Each day has its own. Some are small, some are big. I’m named after the small ones.’ It is 1903. A lame and frail Malangana – ‘Little Suns’ – searches for his beloved Mthwakazi after many lonely years spent in Lesotho. Mthwakazi was the young woman he had fallen in love with twenty years earlier, before the assassination of Hamilton Hope ripped the two of them apart. Intertwined with Malangana’s story, is the account of Hope – a colonial magistrate who, in the late nineteenth century, was undermining the local kingdoms of the eastern Cape in order to bring them... continue
14.
Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night by Sindiwe Magona EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
Magona's collection of superb short stories brings a full range of South African women's experience brilliantly to light. From the village mother leaving her children to work to the maid in service to the white madam, the stories are at once tragic, triumphant, humorous, and sharp, but above all forcefully empowering.
15.
Long Walk to Freedom : The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela by Nelson Mandela EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
The riveting memoirs of the outstanding moral and political leader of our time, A LONG WALK TO FREEDOM brilliantly re-creates the drama of the experiences that helped shape Nelson Mandela's destiny. Emotive, compelling and uplifting, A LONG WALK TO FREEDOM is the exhilarating story of an epic life; a story of hardship, resilience and ultimate triumph told with the clarity and eloquence of a born leader. 'Burns with the luminosity of faith in the invincible nature of human hope and dignity ... Unforgettable' Andre Brink 'Enthralling ... Mandela emulates the few great political leaders such as L... continue
17.
Master Harold...and the boys by Athol Fugard EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
Drama set in South Africa during apartheid.
18.
Mother to mother by Sindiwe Magona EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
A searing novel, told in letter form, that explores the South African legacy of apartheid through the lens of a woman whose Black son has just murdered a white woman Mother to Mother is a novel with depth, at once an emotional plea for compassion and understanding, and a sharp look at the impacts of colonialism and apartheid on South African families. Inspired by the true story of Fulbright scholar Amy Biehl's murder, the book takes the form of a letter to the victim’s mother. The murderer’s mother, Mandisa, speaks of a life marked by oppression and injustice. Through her writing, Mandisa reve... continue
19.
No Time Like the Present by Nadine Gordimer EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
A sharply observed new novel about post-apartheid South Africa from the Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer is one of our most telling contemporary writers. With each new work, she attacks—with a clear-eyed fierceness, a lack of sentimentality, and a deep understanding of the darkest depths of the human soul—her eternal themes: the inextricable link between personal and communal history; the inescapable moral ambiguities of daily life; the political and racial tensions that persist in her homeland, South Africa. And in each new work is fresh evidence of her literary genius: in the sharpness of ... continue
20.
Scatterlings by Resoketswe Manenzhe EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
A BEST NEW BOOK from *Vanity Fair *The Root *Vulture *People *The Washington Post *Christian Science Monitor *Los Angeles Times *Essence A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice Pick! A New Yorker Best Book of the Year! A lyrical, moving novel in the spirit of Transcendent Kingdom and A Burning—and the most awarded debut title in South Africa—that tells the story of a multiracial family when the Immorality Act is passed, revealing the story of one family’s scattered souls in the wake of history. In 1927, South Africa passes the Immorality Act, prohibiting sexual intercourse between “Europe... continue