This first novel by a South African writer focuses on a paid mourner in a village there, a man who grieves for money at the funerals of strangers, but the stories of many other villagers combine with it to present a stirring picture of a village in transition.
A superb new novel by an award-winning author. The background is the Eastern Cape, where in the 1850s, a 16-year-old prophetess, Nongqawuse, instructed the Xhosa nation to kill all their cattle and destroy their crops. She foretold that on an appointed day, the dead would arise, the kraals would be full of cattle, the silos full of fresh grain, ...
In a mountain village in Lesotho, the beautiful Dikosha lives for, setting herself apart from her fellow villagers. Her brother, Radisene, struggles amid political upheaval to find a life for himself. As the years pass, Radisene's fortunes rise and fall in the city, while Dikosha remains in the village, never leaving and never aging.
Zakes Mda, a prize-winning South African writer, takes as the basis for this novel an apartheid-era law, the Immorality Act, that made interracial sex illegal, and a 1971 trial. The story revolves around Niki, who defies the law, and those who are affected by her actions, over a 30-year period in which, while much changes, much also remains the ...
The hero of Mdas "Ways of Dying," Toloki, settles down with a family in middle America and uncovers the story of the runaway slaves who had been their ancestors. Their stories alternate with Tolokis, and the two narratives cast new light on an undiscovered legacy of the Underground Railroad.
The Whale Caller, in tattered tuxedo, spends his days on the cliffs of the small coastal town of Hermanus blowing his kelp horn to the whales that visit in the summer months. In particular, he blows for Sharisha, a southern right whale who always responds to his call. With each surfacing of her giant head and each thrashing of her tail, the Whale ...
Cupidity, corruption and conciliation are the themes of the three plays in this collection from one of South Africa's leading playwrights and novelists. The Mother of all Eating, a one-hander, with its central character a corrupt Lesotho official, is a grinding satire on materialism in which the protagonist gets his come-uppance. You Fool, How Can ...
Two very different women meet during a long wait to buy subsidized rice and discover they have more in common than their poverty; an old man and child share a last, loving waltz; a cynical, disabled gangster learns humanity from a committed social worker; and a young girl finds her missing father and her role in the political struggle. This ...
This volume comprises five one-act-plays, namely: 'The dead end' (1979), 'We shall sing for the fatherland' (1979), 'Dark voices ring' (1979), 'The hill' (1980), and 'The road' (1982).
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