South Africa is a country that fascinates. After reading Born a Crime last month written by a South African author, we had to find out more about the country. Searching online, we were able to find 6 great reads across a variety of genres—books which are all highly reviewed. Though they are written by authors from other countries, these books all provide unique & very interesting views of South Africa.
Happy reading!
Written by an author from Ireland:
Take a walk on the wild side...
Would you like to visit wild South Africa without leaving your home? Then join travel adventurer John Dwyer on his epic journey from vibrant Cape Town to wild Kruger Park. Aided by his vivid descriptions and colorful commentary, you will come face to face with Great White sharks, get off the beaten track on the Wild Coast, soak up the raw energy of the townships, spot dangerous animals in Kruger National Park and wonder at the incredible biodiversity of the Garden Route.
Through his engaging writing and sense of humor, the author takes you on an unforgettable journey through the spectacular scenery and tribal cultures of the “Rainbow Nation.” He also offers an in-depth look at the history of apartheid and its effects on the people of South Africa. Sprinkled with quotes from Nelson Mandela’s book, Long Walk to Freedom, this is the inspirational story of a proud and determined country.
You’ll enjoy this fascinating tour of South Africa and Swaziland as Dwyer meets South Africans of all backgrounds, such as politicians, soccer players, fiendish witchdoctors and annoying tourists.
If you’re interested in the history of South Africa or have ever dreamed of visiting this exotic country, you’ll love Cape Town to Kruger.
Written by an author from the UK:
2020 Nomo Awards Shortlist for “Best Novel,” & a Best Book of 2019 by LitReactor & Entropy
“The violent and fascinating history of South Africa... a novel of incredible imagination that gradually unfurls into a wonderfully realized meditation on growing up, heritage, and the effects of technological progress on the world around us.” —Booklist
Triangulum is an ambitious, often philosophical and genre-bending novel that covers 40 years in South Africa’s recent past and near future—starting from the collapse of apartheid in 1990s, to the economic corrosion of the 2010s, and on to the looming, large-scale ecological disasters of the 2040s.
In 2040, the South African National Space Agency receives a mysterious package containing a memoir and a set of digital recordings from an unnamed woman who claims the world will end in ten years. Assigned to the case, Dr. Naomi Buthelezi, a retired professor is hired to investigate the veracity of the materials, and whether or not the woman's claim is genuine.
Thus begins TRIANGULUM, a found manuscript composed of the mysterious woman’s memoir and her recordings. Haunted by visions of a mysterious machine, the narrator is a seemingly adrift 17-year-old girl, whose sick father never recovered from the shock of losing his wife. She struggles to navigate school, sexual experimentation, and friendship across racial barriers in post-apartheid South Africa.
When three girls go missing from their town, on her mother's birthday, the narrator is convinced that it has something to do with how her mother also went missing in the '90s. Along with her friends, she discovers a puzzling book on UFOs, the references and similarities in which lead them to believe that the text holds clues to the mother's abduction. She and her friends set out on an epic journey that takes them from their small town to an underground lab, a criminal network, and finally, a mysterious, dense forest, in search of clues as to what happened to the narrator's mother.
With extraordinary aplomb and breathtaking prose, Ntshanga has crafted an inventive and marvelous artistic accomplishment.
Written by an author from the UK:
“Scholarly, authoritative, and highly readable.” —Booklist
“…a history that is both accurate and authentic, written in a delightful literary style.” —Archbishop Desmond Tutu
“Leonard Thompson has given us a profound and comprehensive look into the broad sweep of South African history and the painful but promising present it holds. Well researched and beautifully written…It is precise, concise, fecund, and fascinating.” —Senator Clark, .
A leading scholar of South Africa provides a fresh and penetrating exploration of that country’s history, from the earliest known human habitation of the region to the present, focusing primarily on the experiences of its black inhabitants. For this new edition, Leonard Thompson adds two new chapters that describe the transfer of power and the new South Africa under the presidencies of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki.
Leonard Thompson is Charles J. Stillé Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University and director of the former Yale Southern African Research Program.
Written by an author born in Zambia who now lives in the UK:
“I read this with much pleasure… Chilling and fascinating.” —Ursula K. Le Guin
Shortlisted the British Sci Fi Association Award for best novel, John W Campbell Award, Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History, & the NOMMO Award for best African speculative fiction
Nick Wood’s Azanian Bridges is a socially acute fast-paced thriller that propels the reader into a world of intrigue and threat, leading to possibilities that examine the conscience of a nation. The novel featured in the Guardian’s picks of the best SF of 2016.
In a modern day South Africa where Apartheid still holds sway, Sibusiso Mchunu, a young amaZulu man, finds himself the unwitting focus of momentous events when he falls foul of the system and comes into possession of a secret that may just offer hope to his entire people. Pursued by the ANC on one side and Special Branch agents on the other, Sibusiso has little choice but to run.
“The emotional intelligence is as high as its political insightfulness—the whole is compelling and moving.” —Adam Roberts, VP of the H.G. Wells Society
“A deeply-felt examination of Apartheid and its lingering effects through the lens of speculative fiction... challenging and thought-provoking.” —Lavie Tidhar, multiple award-winning author
Written by an author who was born in England & raised in South Africa near the historical territory of his Xhosa ancestors:
“A Xhosa-inspired world complete with magic, dragons, demons, and curses, The Rage of Dragons takes classic fantasy and imbues it with a fresh and exciting twist.” —Anna Stephens, author of Godblind
“Compelling, expansive and rich. Winter has created an exciting and immersive world of magic, vengeance and wonder.” —Micah Yongo, author of Lost Gods
“Intense, inventive and action-packed from beginning to end—a relentlessly gripping, brilliant read.” James Islington, author of The Shadow of What Was Lost
The Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable fight for almost two hundred years. Their society has been built around war and only war. The lucky ones are born gifted. One in every two thousand women has the power to call down dragons. One in every hundred men is able to magically transform himself into a bigger, stronger, faster killing machine.
Everyone else is fodder, destined to fight and die in the endless war. Young, gift-less Tau knows all this, but he has a plan of escape. He's going to get himself injured, get out early, and settle down to marriage, children, and land. Only, he doesn't get the chance. Those closest to him are brutally murdered, and his grief swiftly turns to anger. Fixated on revenge, Tau dedicates himself to an unthinkable path. He'll become the greatest swordsman to ever live, a man willing to die a hundred thousand times for the chance to kill the three who betrayed him.
Written by an author from the US:
“Many of the selected texts were written by prominent persons who had a lasting impact. However, what makes this book a real gem is the inclusion of less-known authors and the many cross-references.” —African Studies Quarterly
“If there’s one book that succeeds in drawing the many strands of South Africa’s rich history together, this is it. It makes for gripping reading and a comprehensive treatment of the country’s exciting past and tumultuous present.” —LSE Review of Books
The South Africa Reader is an extraordinarily rich guide to the history, culture, and politics of South Africa. With more than 80 absorbing selections, the Reader provides many perspectives on the country's diverse peoples, its first two decades as a democracy, and the forces that have shaped its history and continue to pose challenges to its future, particularly violence, inequality, and racial discrimination. Among the selections are folktales passed down through the centuries, statements by 17th-century Dutch colonists, the songs of mine workers, a widow's testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and a photo essay featuring the acclaimed work of Santu Mofokeng. Cartoons, songs, and fiction are juxtaposed with iconic documents, such as “The Freedom Charter” adopted in 1955 by the African National Congress and Nelson Mandela's “Statement from the Dock” in 1964. Cacophonous voices—those of slaves and indentured workers, African chiefs and kings, presidents and revolutionaries—invite readers into ongoing debates about South Africa's past and present and what exactly it means to be South African.
“A fascinating and informative book. From the earliest voices of colonial times through the struggle against apartheid and current efforts to find a genuinely democratic, nonracial, diverse identity, the voices are here: the colonizers and the despoilers, the powerful and the powerless, the dissenters and the resisters, the determined and the courageous, the destroyers of hope and the dreamers of dreams. This is a book to study, reference, and return to again and again.” —Allan Aubrey Boesak, South African liberation theologian and anti-apartheid activist