Books by Can Themba
The Will to Die
by Can Themba
I highly recommend this collection of short stories. It sounds weird, but there’s almost a nostalgia for apartheid, reading it, because all the stories are set in the townships – Soweto, principally. So the backdrop is apartheid, but again they’re not political stories. The Will to Die is a great misnomer – a lot of it is very funny and slightly surreal. I just found the stories very inspiring.
Interviews where books by Can Themba were recommended
The best books on Colonial Africa, recommended by Sam Kiley
‘Wherever you go today in the Congo, you will find monstrous warlords. But you will find far more volunteer nurses and Red Cross workers and teachers who haven’t been paid for 20 years but are still doing their job, not allowing things to fall apart.’
