Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Cobra by Deon Meyer
Apostle Lodge by Paul Mendelson
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
Beethoven was one-sixteenth Black by Nadine GordimerThriller set in Bangkok and Ko Samet
Five great books set in SOUTH AFRICA
2nd August 2019
South Africa is the latest country for us to visit in our ‘Great books set in…’ series. Five great books set in South Africa.
‘Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity’s belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul, and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all’ – Nelson Mandela
Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Cry the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice.
Remarkable for its contemporaneity, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.
Cobra by Deon Meyer
Why would a mathematics professor from Cambridge University, renting a holiday home outside Cape Town, require a false identity and three bodyguards? And where is he, now that they are dead? The only clue to the bodyguards’ murder is the snake engraved on the shell casings of the bullets that killed them.
Investigating the massacre, Benny Griessel and his team find themselves being drawn into an international conspiracy with shocking implications. It seems it is not just the terrorists and criminals of Britain and South Africa who may fear the Professor’s work, but the politicians too.
As the body count begins to spiral viciously, Benny must put his new-found love life aside and focus on finding the one person who could give him a break in the case: a teenage pickpocket on the run in the city. But Benny is not the only person hunting for Tyrone Kleinbooi . . .
Relentlessly suspenseful, topical, hard-hitting and richly rewarding, COBRA is a superb novel from an author who is acclaimed around the world as a brilliant voice in crime fiction.
Apostle Lodge by Paul Mendelson
From the author of the acclaimed The First Rule of Survival, praised by Lee Child as ‘excellent and uncompromising’, comes Paul Mendelson’s explosive latest thriller.
Apostle Lodge looks out over the ocean, an award-winning mansion built by a renowned architect.
Stark and minimal, its black opaque windows hide a terrible secret. As Colonel Vaughn De Vries investigates the depraved crime committed within its walls, he believes there may be more than one killer on the loose, all with connections to a charismatic man who as a child, drowned his sister and shattered his family.
And his work is not over yet.
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
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.
Beethoven was one-sixteenth Black by Nadine Gordimer
This rich story collection will be a reminder to Nadine Gordimer’s countless admirers, and a taster for the uninitiated, of her enduring imaginative power.
A woman gauges the state of her marriage by the tone of her husband’s cello: a wife reads her husband’s mood by the scent in the nape of his neck: a newly emigrated couple are divided by visual obsession, he with his native Budapest, she with South African suburbia.
With consummate artistry, Gordimer illustrates the show downs, standoffs and highlights of human intimacy while penetrating the nuances of immigration, national identity and race.
Andrew for the TripFiction Team
Which titles would you add to the list? Remember to check out the TripFiction listings for more books set in South Africa and around the world. Each will transport you to some excellent fiction, travelogues or memoirs. Or you may have your own favourites you would like to add. Please leave your thoughts in the Comments box below.
Other posts in our ‘Ten/five great books set in…’ series that might interest you:
Five great books set in Tunisia
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