First published 1990
In her final days, a white South African professor faces the horrors of apartheid she's long ignored. As cancer ravages her body, Mrs. Curren witnesses the burning of a black township and the death of her servant's son. A fugitive activist hiding in her home is killed by security forces. Confiding only in a homeless alcoholic, Mrs. Curren is forced to confront the iron-fisted rage of a society she could no longer avoid.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, african-literature
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-study, social-commentary
Setting: Cape Town, South Africa
229 pages · Hardcover · Random House (NY)
Content warnings: death, violence