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Interviews | November 3, 2009

Sheila A.: IMG On Storytelling: The Powells.com Interview with Donald Miller



donaldmillerDonald Miller is a Christian writer, but the question that Miller asks with his latest memoir, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, is applicable to... Continue »
  1. $13.99 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa

by Mark Mathabane

Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

The Classic Story of Life in Apartheid South Africa

Mark Mathabane was weaned on devastating poverty and schooled in the cruel streets of South Africa's most desperate ghetto, where bloody gang wars and midnight police raids were his rites of passage. Like every other child born in the hopelessness of apartheid, he learned to measure his life in days, not years. Yet Mark Mathabane, armed only with the courage of his family and a hard-won education, raised himself up from the squalor and humiliation to win a scholarship to an American university.

This extraordinary memoir of life under apartheid is a triumph of the human spirit over hatred and unspeakable degradation. For Mark Mathabane did what no physically and psychologically battered "Kaffir" from the rat-infested alleys of Alexandra was supposed to do — he escaped to tell about it.

Review:

"This is a rare look inside the festering adobe shanties of Alexandra, one of South Africa's notorious black townships. Rare because it comes . . . from the heart of a passionate young African who grew up there."-- Chicago Tribune

Review:

"Powerful, intense, inspiring."-- Publishers Weekly

Review:

"Like . . . Claude Brown's Manchild in the Promised Land . . . in every way as important and exciting."-- The Washington Post

Synopsis:

Written with courage and conviction, Mark Mathbane's reveals the extraordinary memoir of growing up in a world under apartheid. B&W photo insert.

About the Author

Mark Mathabane is the author of Kaffir Boy in America, Love in Black and White, and African Women: Three Generations.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Jerryh, March 11, 2008 (view all comments by Jerryh)
this book will take you on an emotional ride. It is well written and paints a very good picture of the brutality and unfairness of apartheid
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(3 of 5 readers found this comment helpful)

Product Details

ISBN:
9780684848280
Subtitle:
The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa
Author:
Mathabane, Mark
Author:
Mathabane, Mark
Publisher:
Free Press
Location:
New York :
Subject:
Historical
Subject:
People of Color
Subject:
Biography
Subject:
Historical - General
Subject:
Discrimination & Racism
Subject:
Blacks
Subject:
South Africa
Subject:
Apartheid
Subject:
Africa, south
Subject:
Apartheid -- South Africa.
Subject:
Africa - South Africa
Subject:
Africa - South - South Africa
Subject:
cultural heritage
Subject:
Africa - South - Republic of South Africa
Subject:
Mathabane, Mark.
Subject:
Blacks -- South Africa -- Biography.
Copyright:
Edition Number:
1st Touchstone ed.
Edition Description:
B102
Publication Date:
October 1998
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Yes
Pages:
368
Dimensions:
8.40x5.56x.95 in. .77 lbs.

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