My Traitor's Heart
by Rian Malan
You come away with this sense that something has been drawn absolutely out of the South African soul, the way you might read a Solzhenitsyn book to understand something about Russia.
Recommendations from our site
“Perhaps the most important memoir that has ever been published by a white South African. A man who stared into the irreconcilable inner turmoils that are implicit in the condition of African whiteness.” Read more...
The best books on Holding Power to Account
Heather Brooke, Journalist
“Rian was commissioned by Random House to go and write the story of the history of his clan, but he realised 100 pages in that the story was actually a memoir and it was about his struggle.” Read more...
The best books on Post-Apartheid Identity
Kevin Bloom, Journalist
“It goes deep, deep, deep into individual lives, which I increasingly have come to believe is the only way that we can understand these large, political shapes, particularly in stories that are foreign to us.” Read more...
The best books on The Rwandan Genocide
Philip Gourevitch, Journalist