Books from South Africa
127 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.
81.
Swimming Home by Deborah Levy EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
Swimming Home is a subversive page-turner, a merciless gaze at the insidious harm that depression can have on apparently stable, well-turned-out people. Set in a summer villa, the story is tautly structured, taking place over a single week in which a group of beautiful, flawed tourists on the French Riviera come loose at the seams.
82.
Tales of Tenderness and Power by Bessie Head EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
This is an anthology of stories, personal observations and historic legends. It reflects the author's fascination with Africa's people and their history as well as her identification with individuals and their conflicting emotions.
84.
The Book of Happenstance by Ingrid Winterbach EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
A middle aged lexicographer, Helena, travels alone to Durban to assist in the creation of a dictionary of Afrikaans words that have fallen out of use. Shortly after her arrival, her flat is burgled and her precious lifetime's collection of shells is stolen. Meeting with indifference from the local police, she decides to investigate the crime on her own, with the help of her new friend Sof who works at the Museum of Natural History. While investigating the crime, Helena reflects on her life and her ex husband, daughter, childhood and her married boss who she is falling for.
85.
The Book of Lost Tales: Part One by J.R.R. Tolkien EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
The extraordinary history of Middle-earth, edited by Christopher Tolkien The Book of Lost Tales stands at the beginning of the entire conception of Middle-earth and Valinor. Embedded in English legend and English association, they were set in the narrative frame of a great westward voyage over the Ocean by a mariner named Eriol (or Ælfwine) to Tol Eressëa, the Lonely Isle, where Elves dwelt; from them he learned their true history, the Lost Tales of Elfinesse. In the Tales are found the earliest accounts and original ideas of Gods and Elves; Dwarves and Orcs; the Silmarils and the Two Trees of... continue
86.
The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales by Bessie Head EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
Botswana village tales about subjects such as the breakdown of family life and the position of women in this society.
87.
The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
"This is a novel of enormous power' New Statesman 'Gordimer is a great writer ... It is Turgenev that she most brings to mind' -- New York Review of Books The Booker Prize winning political novel by the Nobel Prize winning author Nadine Gordimer Mehring is rich. He has all the privileges and possessions that South Africa has to offer, but his possessions refuse to remain objects. His wife, son, and mistress leave him; his foreman and workers become increasingly indifferent to his stewardship; even the land rises up, as drought, then flood, destroy his farm.
88.
The Cry of Winnie Mandela : A Novel by Njabulo Simakahle Ndebele EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
A group of women at a specific period in the history of Southern Africa find their family life under the pressures of capitalist modernity and apartheid. These ordinary, intimate stories are anchored to the more powerful public stories of the Penelope of ancient Greek mythology (who waited 18 years while her husband Odyseeus was away), and Winnie Mandela (who waited for 27 years). The life of Winnie Mandela remains one of the great unfolding dramas of our times; a tale of triumphs and tragedies that is only just beginning to be examined.
89.
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years : A Novel by Shubnum Khan EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE "Rich and swoony...an ambitious delight, with rich characters and some exceptionally lovely writing...This is the start of a major career." -- The New York Times Book Review AN INDIE NEXT PICK A LIBRARY READS PICK “A dark and heady dream of a book” (Alix E. Harrow) about a ruined mansion by the sea, the djinn that haunts it, and a curious girl who unearths the tragedy that happened there a hundred years previous Akbar Manzil was once a grand estate off the coast of South Africa. Nearly a century later, it stands in ruins: an isolated boardinghouse f... continue
90.
The Expedition to the Baobab Tree by Wilma Stockenstrom EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
A powerful fable originally published by Faber in 1983, translated by Nobel laureate and two-time Booker prize winner J. M. Coetzee.