Start here
Cry, the Beloved Country
Alan Paton
Novel, 1948
A Zulu pastor travels from rural Natal to Johannesburg in the 1940s, searching for his son amid segregation's damage.
Books set in South Africa
Six books by writers from South Africa, set there, that give a real sense of the place, starting with Cry, the Beloved Country and Disgrace.
About the literature of South Africa
South Africa has produced two Nobel laureates in literature, Nadine Gordimer in 1991 and J. M. Coetzee in 2003. Gordimer is best known for novels such as July's People. Writers work in English, Afrikaans, isiZulu, isiXhosa and other languages. Under apartheid the state banned many books, and memoir and testimony remain strong forms. Land, race and the legacy of segregation recur throughout.
Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country sends a Zulu pastor from rural Natal to Johannesburg in the 1940s to look for his son. Coetzee's Disgrace takes a Cape Town professor to the Eastern Cape farmlands. Antjie Krog, a poet and reporter, recorded the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in Country of My Skull, and Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom runs from his Transkei childhood through Robben Island to freedom.
By writers from South Africa
“Find a copy” goes to Bookshop.org. If you buy, we earn a small commission and independent bookshops get a share too.
Disgrace
J. M. Coetzee
Novel, 1999
A Cape Town professor's fall takes him to the Eastern Cape farmlands, exposing post-apartheid tensions over land, race and violence.
Born a Crime
Trevor Noah
Memoir, 2016
Memoir of growing up mixed-race in apartheid and early post-apartheid Soweto, Eersterust and Johannesburg, told with humour and sharp insight.
Long Walk to Freedom
Nelson Mandela
Memoir, 1994
Mandela's autobiography spans his Transkei childhood, Johannesburg activism, Robben Island imprisonment and the negotiated end of apartheid.
Country of My Skull
Antjie Krog
Memoir, 1998
Poet-reporter's account of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, conveying testimony, guilt and the struggle for national healing in the 1990s.
Boyhood
J. M. Coetzee
Memoir, 1997
Fictionalised memoir of a boy growing up in 1950s Cape Town and Worcester, shaped by Afrikaner and English divisions.
More from Africa
Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cabo Verde Cameroon Central African Republic Chad Comoros Congo Côte d'Ivoire Djibouti DR Congo Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Eswatini Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Sudan Sudan Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe