Telling Times: Writing and Living, 1954-2008

Few writers have been so much at the center of historical events as Nadine Gordimer. Telling Times, the first comprehensive collection of her nonfiction, bears insightful witness to the forces that have shaped the last half century. It includes reports from Soweto during the 1976 uprising, Zimbabwe at the dawn of independence, and Africa at the start of the AIDS pandemic, as well as illuminating portraits of Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and many others. Committed first and foremost to art, Gordimer appraises the legacies of hallowed writers like Tolstoy, Proust, and Conrad, and engages vigorously with contemporaries like Achebe, Said, and Soyinka. No other writer has so consistently evoked the feel of Africa--its landscapes, cities, and people--through a remarkable range of travel writing from Tanzania, Egypt, and along the Congo River. Telling Times is an extraordinary summation from a writer whose enduring courage and commitment to human freedom have made her a moral compass of her time.