Contemporary fiction books from South Africa
Recommended contemporary fiction books (19)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into contemporary fiction here are some contemporary fiction books from South Africa for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
1.
An Island : A Novel by Karen Jennings EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE • A “beautifully and sparingly constructed” (The New York Times) novel about a lighthouse keeper with a mysterious past, and the stranger who washes up on his shores—An Island is the American debut of a major voice in world literature. “An Island by Karen Jennings is quite simply a revelation—a ferocious, swift chess game of a novel.”—Paul Yoon, author of Run Me to Earth ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Vulture Samuel has lived alone on an island off the coast of an unnamed African country for more than two decades. He tends to... continue
2.
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
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 farm. For a time, his daughter's influence and the natural rhythms of the farm promise to harmonize his discordant life. But the balance of power in the country is shifting. He and Lucy become victims of a savage and dis... continue
3.
Elizabeth Costello: Eight Lessons by J. M. Coetzee EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
Elizabeth Costello is an Australian writer of international renown; she is f-ted, studied, honoured. Famous principally for an early novel that established her reputation and from which, it seems, she will never escape, she has reached the stage, late in life, where her remaining function is to be venerated and applauded. One of a new breed of intellectual nomads, her life has become a series of engagements in sterile conference rooms throughout the world - a private consciousness obliged to reveal itself to a curious public: the presentation of a major award at an American college where she i... continue
4.
Evening Primrose: a heart-wrenching novel for our times by Kopano Matlwa EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
A powerful and timely novel from 'South Africa's Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie' (Bookseller) . 'Heart-wrenching' Grazia . With urgency and tenderness Evening Primrose explores issues of race, gender and the medical profession through the eyes of a junior doctor. When Masechaba finally achieves her childhood dream of becoming a doctor, her ambition is tested as she faces the stark reality of South Africa's public healthcare system. As she leaves her deeply religious mother and makes friends with the politically-minded Nyasha, Masechaba's eyes are opened to the rising xenophobic tension that carries ... continue
5.
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize, Hot Milk moves "gracefully among pathos, danger, and humor” (The New York Times). I have been sleuthing my mother’s symptoms for as long as I can remember. If I see myself as an unwilling detective with a desire for justice, is her illness an unsolved crime? If so, who is the villain and who is the victim? Sofia, a young anthropologist, has spent much of her life trying to solve the mystery of her mother’s unexplainable illness. She is frustrated with Rose and her constant complaints, but utterly relieved to ... continue
6.
If You Want to Make God Laugh by Bianca Marais EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
A rich, unforgettable story of three unique women in post-Apartheid South Africa who are brought together in their darkest time and discover the ways that love can transcend the strictest of boundaries. In a squatter camp on the outskirts of Johannesburg, seventeen-year-old Zodwa lives in desperate poverty, under the shadowy threat of a civil war and a growing AIDS epidemic. Eight months pregnant, Zodwa carefully guards secrets that jeopardize her life. Across the country, wealthy socialite Ruth appears to have everything her heart desires, but it's what she can't have that leads to her breakd... continue
7.
Innards : Stories by Magogodi oaMphela Makhene EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
This incendiary debut of linked stories narrates the everyday lives of Soweto residents, from the early years of apartheid to its dissolution and beyond.
8.
L'âge de fer by J. M. Coetzee FR
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
En 1986, au Cap, Elizabeth Curren se meurt d'un cancer, et elle est brutalement confrontée à l'explosion de rage que le système de l'Apartheid a engendrée. Dans une longue lettre à sa fille exilée en Amérique, Elizabeth relate les événements qui ponctuent ses derniers jours. Témoin de l'émeute et de la répression dans un township voisin, elle découvre le corps criblé de balles du fils de sa domestique noire, et assiste à l'exécution par la police d'un autre adolescent... Parvenue au terme de son existence, avec pour ange de la mort et confident un clochard réfugié chez elle, Elizabeth tentera ... continue
9.
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
