by Nadine Gordimer. (Get the Book)What is more emblematic of South Africa's liberation from apartheid than a marriage between a white man and a black woman? Following milestone collections of her short stories (Life Times, 2010) and essays (Telling Times, 2010), Nobel laureate Gordimer continues her uniquely intimate study of the evolution of freedom in her homeland in her fifteenth novel, a delving work of acrobatic stream-of-consciousness as the narration is handed off from husband to wife. Steve, an industrial chemist who made bombs during the Struggle, has entered academia. Jabulile, whose wise headmaster father made sure she received a good education, endured prison and torture and is now studying law and advocating for the poor. The parents of a daughter and a son, they live in a diverse, embracing community outside Johannesburg, which belies the country's violently divided past but cannot shield them from the crushing realities of current government corruption, persistent inequality, and monumental poverty. In this intensely reflective novel of conscience, Gordimer dramatizes with acute specificity, wit, and sympathy the mix of guilt and conviction her freedom-fighter characters experience as they admit, The Struggle is not over. Still, isn't it time to simply live their lives and give up the fight? Literary warrior Gordimer writes, There is only one time, all time, for principles you live by. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: New works by Gordimer are always hot, but the subject of this towering novel, the long aftermath of a liberation movement, is exceedingly timely in the wake of the Arab spring. --Booklist
