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Living in Hope and History

Notes from Our Century

Nadine Gordimer

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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ISBN10: 0374527520
ISBN13: 9780374527525

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256 Pages

$22.00

CA$24.00

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Internationally celebrated for her novels, Nadine Gordimer has devoted much of her life and fiction to the political struggles of the Third World, the New World, and her native South Africa. Living in Hope and History is an on-the-spot record of her years as a public figure—an observer of apartheid and its aftermath, a member of the ANC, and the champion of dissident writers everywhere.

In a letter to fellow Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe, Gordimer describes Living in Hope and History as a "modest book of some of the nonfiction pieces I've written, a reflection of how I've looked at this century I've lived in." It is, in fact, an extraordinary collection of essays, articles, and addresses delivered over four decades, including her Nobel Prize Lecture of 1991.

Reviews

Praise for Living in Hope and History

"Nadine Gordimer [is] one of the grand chroniclers of the era . . . [She] gives the power of voice to a world where history so often seems to stamp out hope."—Jill Piggott, The Boston Globe Review

"Gripping and important . . . A rare glimpse of the crumbling of the last bastion of colonialism, told by a writer of consummate skill."—Steven Harvey, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Gordimer has undoubtedly become one of the World's Great Writers . . . Her rootedness in a political time, place and faith has never dimmed her complex gifts as an artist; her partisanship has not compromised her artistic distance. Great writers can retain political faith; they can believe and create. This is an important message for all aspirant writers of the next century."—The Independent (London)

Reviews from Goodreads

BOOK EXCERPTS

Read an Excerpt

THREE IN A BED:
FICTION, MORALS, AND POLITICS
Three in a bed: it's a kinky cultural affair. I had better identify the partners.
Politics and morals, as concepts, need no introduction, although their relationship is shadily ambiguous. But...

About the author

Nadine Gordimer

Nadine Gordimer's most recent work includes None to Accompany Me (FSG, 1994), The House Gun (FSG, 1998) and The Pickup (FSG, 2001). She has received many awards, including the Booker Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991. She lives in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Copyright Maureen Isaacson

New York Times Obituary

BBC News Obituary