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Recommended books (24)
Travel the world without leaving your chair. The target of the Read Around The World Challenge is to read at least one book written by an author from each and every country in the world. All books that are listed here as part of the "Read Around Africa Challenge" were written by authors from South Africa. Find a great book for the next part of your reading journey around the world from this book list. The following popular books have been recommended so far.

1.
A Dry White Season

A Dry White Season by Andre Brink EN

Rating: 4     1 Vote
Description:
As startling and powerful as when first published more than two decades ago, André Brink's classic novel, A Dry White Season, is an unflinching and unforgettable look at racial intolerance, the human condition, and the heavy price of morality. Ben Du Toit is a white schoolteacher in suburban Johannesburg in a dark time of intolerance and state-sanctioned apartheid. A simple, apolitical man, he believes in the essential fairness of the South African government and its policies—until the sudden arrest and subsequent "suicide" of a black janitor from Du Toit's school. Haunted by new questions and... continue
Recommended: 10 Jan 2023

2.

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah EN

Rating: 4     31 Votes
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • More than one million copies sold! A “brilliant” (Lupita Nyong’o, Time), “poignant” (Entertainment Weekly), “soul-nourishing” (USA Today) memoir about coming of age during the twilight of apartheid “Noah’s childhood stories are told with all the hilarity and intellect that characterizes his comedy, while illuminating a dark and brutal period in South Africa’s history that must never be forgotten.”—Esquire Winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor and an NAACP Image Award • Named one of the best books of the year by The New York Time, USA Today, San Francisco... continue
Recommended: 14 Jan 2018

3.
Boyhood

Boyhood by J.M. Coetzee EN

0 Ratings
Recommended: 08 Mar 2023

4.
Coconut

Coconut by Kopano Matlwa EN

Rating: 4     1 Vote
Description:
An important rumination on youth in modern-day South Africa, this haunting debut novel tells the story of two extraordinary young women who have grown up black in white suburbs and must now struggle to find their identities. The rich and pampered Ofilwe has taken her privileged lifestyle for granted, and must confront her swiftly dwindling sense of culture when her soulless world falls apart. Meanwhile, the hip and sassy Fiks is an ambitious go-getter desperate to leave her vicious past behind for the glossy sophistication of city life, but finds Johannesburg to be more complicated and unforgi... continue
Genre
Recommended: 19 Jul 2023

5.

Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton EN

Rating: 5     2 Votes
Description:
The heroine in this actor's tour-de-force is an ordinary middle class English housewife. As she prepares egg and chips for dinner, she ruminates on her life and tells the wall about her husband, her children, her past, and an invitation from a girlfriend to join her on holiday in Greece to search for romance and adventure. Ultimately, Shirley does escape to Greece, has an "adventure" with a local fisherman and decides to stay. This hilariously engaging play was a hit in London and New York, performed by Pauline Collins, who later recreated her role on film garnering an Oscar nomination.

6.

Das Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien DE

Rating: 3     1 Vote
Recommended: 02 Sep 2023

7.
Devil's Valley

Devil's Valley by André Brink EN

0 Ratings
Recommended: 31 Jan 2023

8.

Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee EN

Rating: 4     2 Votes
Description:
'A great novel by one of the finest authors writing in the English language today' The Times **A BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS BIG JUBILEE READ PICK** After years teaching Romantic poetry at the Technical University of Cape Town, David Lurie, middle-aged and twice divorced, has an impulsive affair with a student. The affair sours; he is denounced and summoned before a committee of inquiry. Willing to admit his guilt, but refusing to yield to pressure to repent publicly, he resigns and retreats to his daughter Lucy's isolated smallholding. For a time, his daughter's influence and the natural rhythms o... continue
Genre
Recommended: 21 May 2022

9.

Gem Squash Tokoloshe by Rachel Zadok EN

Rating: 3.7     3 Votes
Description:
Faith struggles to make sense of the complex world in which she lives and come to terms with the beliefs her society and upbringing have inculcated in her. This tale of courage, set against the backdrop of a chaotically divided country, recreates the voice of a young girl growing up during the height of apartheid unrest in South Africa.
Genre Memoir
Recommended: 18 Jan 2018

10.
Going to the Mountain

Going to the Mountain : Life Lessons from My Grandfather, Nelson Mandela by Ndaba Mandela EN

0 Ratings
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
Recommended: 06 Aug 2023


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