Selected Stories

Nadine Gordimer

Viking Press, 1976 - Fiction - 381 pages

In stories written over a period of thirty years, individuals caught up in racial and other South African tensions choose or fall victim to visions and fears of freedom and change

What people are saying

Review: Selected Stories

User Review  - George - Goodreads

As in most short story collections there were some I liked a lot more than others. Some of them I liked a very great deal, the quality of her writing was amazing at times. This collection has a LOT of ...

Review: Selected Stories

User Review  - Dan - Goodreads

There are no duds, and many gems in this collection. Her characters are varied and vivid, her writing is flawless and her ability to describe psychological states is exceptional. For a history of South African life, through literature, from the 50s-70s, this is a perfect volume.

Contents

• from The Soft Voice of the Serpent: 19
• A Bit of Young Life: 48
• QSix Feet of the Country: 59

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.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Selected Stories
• Author: Nadine Gordimer
• Publisher: Viking Press, 1976
• ISBN: 0670631973, 9780670631971
• Length: 381 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / General