Zoë Wicomb Bücher

A New York Times Top Historical Fiction Pick of 2020An inventive and genre- bending new novel from a master of the form, exploring race, the legacy of past exploitation and present-day authorship. Who should be remembered, and who should tell their story? .

The South African novel of identity that "deserves a wide audience on a par with Nadine Gordimer."

Set in a beautifully rendered 1990s Cape Town, Zoë Wicomb’s celebrated novel revolves around Marion Campbell, who runs a travel agency but hates traveling, and who, in post-apartheid society, must negotiate the complexities of a knotty relationship with Brenda, her first black employee. As Alison McCulloch noted in the New York Times, “Wicomb deftly explores the ghastly soup of racism in all its unglory—denial, tradition, habit, stupidity, fear—and manages to do so without moralizing or becoming formulaic.”Caught in the narrow world of private interests and self-advancement, Marion eschews national politics until the Truth and Reconciliation Commission throws up information that brings into question not only her family’s past but her identity and her rightful place in contemporary South African society. “Stylistically nuanced and psychologically astute” (Kirkus), Playing in the Light is as powerful in its depiction of Marion’s personal journey as it is in its depiction of South Africa’s bizarre, brutal history.

The first collection of nonfiction critical writings by one of the leading literary figures of post-apartheid South Africa