Historical fiction books from South Africa
Recommended historical fiction books (19)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into historical fiction here are some historical fiction books from South Africa for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
1.
A Dry White Season by Andre Brink EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
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
2.
Agaat by Marlene Van Niekerk EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
"I was immediately mesmerized . . . as brilliant as it is haunting." --Toni Morrison
3.
Circles in a Forest by Dalene Matthee EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
Born and bred into the tawny magnificence of Africa, Saul would fight to save the vanishing world of his inheritance.
4.
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
The compassionate story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom.
5.
Devil's Valley by André Brink EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
A reporter in South Africa discovers a lost valley whose inhabitants continue to practice apartheid. They are the descendants of an 1880s fundamentalist Christian sect and they have managed to maintain their isolation by murdering visitors. A satire on Afrikaner culture by the author of A Dry White Season.
6.
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
7.
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
8.
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
Jessica is based on the inspiring true story of a young girl's fight for justice against tremendous odds.
A tomboy, Jessica is the pride of her father, as they work together on the struggling family farm. One quiet day, the peace of the bush is devastated by a terrible murder. Only Jessica is able to save the killer from the lynch mob – but will justice prevail in the courts?
Nine months later, a baby is born … with Jessica determined to guard the secret of the father's identity. The rivalry of Jessica and her beautiful sister for the love of the same man will echo... continue
10.
Philida by Andre Brink EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
This is what it is to be a slave: that everything is decided for you from out there. You just got to listen and do as they tell you. You don’t say no. You don’t ask questions. You just do what they tell you. But far at the back of your head you think: Soon there must come a day when I can say for myself: This and that I shall do, this and that I shall not. In Philida, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, André Brink—“one of South Africa's greatest novelists” (The Telegraph)—gives us his most powerful novel yet; the truly unforgettable story of a female slave, and her fierce determination to su... continue