July’s People

For years, it has been what is called a ‘deteriorating situation’. Now all over South Africa the cities are battlegrounds. The members of the Smales family – liberal whites – are rescued from the terror by their servant, July, who leads them to refuge in his native village. What happens to the Smaleses and to July – the shifts in character and relationships – gives us an unforgettable look into the terrifying, tacit understandings and misunderstandings between blacks and whites. About The Author: Winner of many international awards, South African Nadine Gordimer was born in Springs, Transvaal and received her education at a convent school and at the University of the Witersand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Gordimer – novelist, short story writer, and essayist – is one of South Africa’s best-known authors, and she is perhaps the country’s most gifted contemporary novelist. In her fiction Gordimer consistently attacks the system of apartheid from the standpoint of the white middle class. Her stories show how some whites slowly awaken to the injustice and moral corruption of the system while others fail to see how the racial policy eats away at the moral basis of society. Gordimer’s narratives are rich in detail and precise observation. She frequently uses a single well-drawn event, incident, or scene to capture the sense of broad social decay she seeks to depict. In an early work, The Late Bourgeois World (1966), she expresses some cautious hope for the future of South Africa. A Sport of Nature (1987), her most recent novel, shows the development of a young, middle-class, white woman into a political activist.

Author: Nadine Gordimer

ISBN:9780747578383