A startling novel by the leading writer of the new South Africa
In The Heart of Redness -- shortlisted for the prestigious Commonwealth Writers Prize -- Zakes Mda sets a story of South African village life against a notorious episode from the country's past. The result is a novel of great scope and deep human feeling, of passion and reconciliation.
As the novel opens Camugu, who left for America during apartheid, has returned to Johannesburg. Disillusioned by the problems of the new democracy, he follows his "famous lust" to Qolorha on the remote Eastern Cape. There in the nineteenth century a teenage prophetess named Nonqawuse commanded the Xhosa people to kill their cattle and burn their crops, promising that once they did so the spirits of their ancestors would rise and drive the occupying English into the ocean. The failed prophecy split the Xhosa into Believers and Unbelievers, dividing brother from brother, wife from husband, with devastating consequences.
One hundred fifty years later, the two groups' decendants are at odds over plans to build a vast casino and tourist resort in the village, and Camugu is soon drawn into their heritage and their future -- and into a bizarre love triangle as well.
The Heart of Redness is a seamless weave of history, myth, and realist fiction. It is, arguably, the first great novel of the new South Africa -- a triumph of imaginative and historical writing.
In The Heart of Redness -- shortlisted for the prestigious Commonwealth Writers Prize -- Zakes Mda sets a story of South African village life against a notorious episode from the country's past. The result is a novel of great scope and deep human feeling, of passion and reconciliation.
As the novel opens Camugu, who left for America during apartheid, has returned to Johannesburg. Disillusioned by the problems of the new democracy, he follows his "famous lust" to Qolorha on the remote Eastern Cape. There in the nineteenth century a teenage prophetess named Nonqawuse commanded the Xhosa people to kill their cattle and burn their crops, promising that once they did so the spirits of their ancestors would rise and drive the occupying English into the ocean. The failed prophecy split the Xhosa into Believers and Unbelievers, dividing brother from brother, wife from husband, with devastating consequences.
One hundred fifty years later, the two groups' decendants are at odds over plans to build a vast casino and tourist resort in the village, and Camugu is soon drawn into their heritage and their future -- and into a bizarre love triangle as well.
The Heart of Redness is a seamless weave of history, myth, and realist fiction. It is, arguably, the first great novel of the new South Africa -- a triumph of imaginative and historical writing.
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Used availability for Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness
See all available used copies of this book at: Abebooks UK or Abebooks US
Hardback Editions
August 2002 : Hardback
| Title: The Heart of Redness Author(s): Zakes Mda ISBN: 0-374-52834-9 / 978-0-374-52834-8 (USA edition) Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
Paperback Editions
April 2009 : Paperback
| Title: Heart Of Redness Author(s): Zakes Mda ISBN: 0-14-305365-5 / 978-0-14-305365-1 (UK edition) Publisher: Penguin Canada (APB) Availability: Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
August 2003 : Paperback
| Title: The Heart of Redness Author(s): Zakes Mda ISBN: 0-312-42174-5 / 978-0-312-42174-8 (USA edition) Publisher: Picador USA Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
August 2002 : Paperback
| Title: The Heart of Redness Author(s): Zakes Mda ISBN: 0-19-571477-6 / 978-0-19-571477-7 (UK edition) Publisher: Oxford University Press Southern Africa Availability: Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
2000 : Paperback
| Title: THE HEART OF REDNESS Author(s): Zakes Mda Publisher: Farrar , Strauss and Giroux Availability: Amazon More details... |
Other Editions
April 2010 : Kindle edition
| Title: The Heart of Redness: A Novel Author(s): Zakes Mda Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Availability: Amazon More details... |
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