-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
Writing and Living, 1954-2008
by Nadine Gordimer
Few writers have been so much at the center of historic 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 Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire to Egypt and along the Congo River.
With nearly one hundred pieces from six decades of work, Telling Times is an extraordinary summation from a writer whose enduring courage and commitment to human freedom has made her a moral compass of our time.
"The more polished of these pieces brim with subtle insights and evocative landscapes and characterizations. Others...have a tossed-off feel." - Publishers Weekly
"[A] much-deserved tribute to Gordimer and a firm reminder of her country's difficult path to liberation." - Kirkus Reviews
"Pieces are grouped by the decade in which they were written and include the date of publication but not a complete bibliographic citation—a disappointing omission." - Library Journal
This information about Telling Times was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Nadine Gordimer won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, and publications all over the world. She lives in Johannesburg.
If you liked Telling Times, try these:
by Rita Bullwinkel
Published 2025
An electrifying debut novel from an "unusually gifted writer" (Lorrie Moore) about the radical intimacy of physical competition
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Published 2024
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Between the World and Me journeys to three resonant sites of conflict to explore how the stories we tell—and the ones we don't—shape our realities.
by Melanie Benjamin
Published 2024
Two sisters navigate the thrilling, euphoric early days of California surf culture in this dazzling saga of ambition, sacrifice, and the tangled ties between mothers and daughters.
L.A. Women by Ella Berman
Two ambitious writers in 1960s LA face betrayal when one writes a novel based on the other's life.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
