Synopses & Reviews
A new novel by a towering presence in contemporary South African literatureIn 1971, nineteen citizens of Excelsior in South Africa's white-ruled Free State were charged with breaking apartheid's Immorality Act, which forbade sex between blacks and whites. Taking this case as raw material for his alchemic imagination, Zakes Mda tells the story of a family at the heart of the scandal -and of a country in which apartheid concealed interracial
liaisons of every kind.
Niki, the fallen madonna, transgresses boundaries for the sake of love; her choices have repercussions in the lives of her black son and mixed-race daughter, who come of age in post-apartheid South Africa, where freedom prompts them to reexamine their country's troubled history at first hand.
By turns earthy, witty, and tragic, The Madonna of Excelsior is a brilliant depiction of life in South Africa and of the dramatic changes between the 1970s and the present.
Review
"The Madonna of Excelsior is a book of huge emotions....We also encounter a writer who has the power to shock and frighten us, to astound and anger and unsettle us." The New York Times
Review
"[Mda's] best work to date....[T]he author masterfully fuses descriptions of paintings with depictions of daily life, achieving with words what is usually possible only on film and making the novel itself a work of art." Library Journal
Review
"A gorgeously colored picture of personal and cultural metamorphosis. Exhilarating stuff." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Reading The Madonna of Excelsior is so enjoyable, so captivating, that by the time you've finished the book (in not much time at all, probably), you'll be shocked to realize you've actually learned a great deal....By the end of [Mda's] book, you'll understand not only a great deal more about the past and present of South Africa, but also about people in general, and the intricate emotional forces that shape who we are." Chris Farah, Salon.com (read the entire Salon.com review)
Synopsis
A new novel by a towering presence in contemporary South African literature. By turns earthy, witty, and tragic, "The Madonna of Excelsior" is a brilliant depiction of life in South Africa and of the dramatic changes between the 1970s and the present.
About the Author
Zakes Mda, a novelist and playwright, has received every major South African prize for his work. Born in 1948, he has been a visiting professor at Yale and the University of Vermont. He is writer-in-residence at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg. His previous novel
The Heart of Redness was published by FSG in 2002.