Books from South Africa
51 popular south african books
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.
21.
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
23.
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
En esta evocación en forma de memorias, y continuación de Infancia, J. M. Coetzee revisita su juventud, periodo fundamental de aprendizaje para el autor y narrador de la historia, un estudiante de matemáticas e inglés que quiere ser escritor. Para conseguirlo, se traslada desde Ciudad del Cabo hasta la capital inglesa, huyendo de la situación claustrofóbica y compleja que atraviesa su país y de una serie de circunstancias personales conflictivas. En esta búsqueda de sí mismo, el joven protagonista aparece como un individuo atorment... continue
24.
La Coleccionista de tesoros y otros cuentos de los pueblos de Botsuana by Bessie Head ES
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
A través de trece cuentos, casi costumbristas, la autora nos pinta un excelente fresco de la vida en las aldeas de Botsuana (que no difieren mucho de tantas otras de África), durante el período de transición hacia la independencia del país. Y lo hace a través de personajes muy bien construidos, y ante los cuales pone sus ojos de una manera amable y comprensiva.
A diferencia de gran parte de corriente dominante en los escritores africanos de la época (el libro fue escrito en 1977), no hace una mitificación nostálgica de las tradici... continue
25.
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
The Swarts are a white family who have lived for generations on a farm outside Pretoria, South Africa. After the death of the mother, all the members gather for the funeral at the family home. Amor and Anton, two of her children, reject what the family represents and do not forget the promise that their father made to their mother shortly before he died: that Salome, the black woman who has been working for them all her life and who took care of him in his last days, she could keep the small house in which she has lived for years. But time is passing and the promise is not fulfilled. The narra... continue
26.
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
27.
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.
28.
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
29.
Master Harold...and the boys by Athol Fugard EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
Drama set in South Africa during apartheid.
30.
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