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A Forceful Voice for Equality: Nadine Gordimer

Categories: Audiobook Library, Authors for Access

Nadine GordimerNobel-prize-winning author Nadine Gordimer passed away on July 13, 2014, but she lives on in her writing and will be remembered for her deeply powerful voice against apartheid in her home country of South Africa. Her stories dealt with themes that touched on the most poignant and fundamental aspects of human emotion: grief, love, anger and fear. Standing among the most insightful literary figures of her time, Gordimer captured the racially-charged turmoil that was tearing her country apart and brought attention to their plight. Gordimer said, "Time is change; we measure its passing by how much things alter," and fortunately lived long enough to see change take place in the country she cared so passionately about. In honor of this extraordinary woman, here is a selection of her works available for download in Learning Ally's audiobook library: Jump and Other Stories: In sixteen stories ranging from the dynamics of family life to the worldwide confusion of human values, Gordimer gives readers access to many lives in places as far apart as suburban London, Mozambique, a mythical island, and South Africa. July's People: In the midst of South Africa's apartheid, Gordimer wrote this book as a prediction of how the conflict would end. Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black and Other Stories: In this collection of short stories, Gordimer crosses the frontiers of politics, memory, sexuality and love with the fearless insight that is the hallmark of her writing. The Pickup: A psychologically penetrating story of the love affair between a rich South African and the illegal alien she "picks up" on a whim. According to The Guardian, many of Gordimer's stories dealt with the themes of love, hate and friendship under the pressures of the racially segregated system that ended in 1994, when Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first black president.  She had three books banned under the apartheid regime's censorship laws, along with an anthology of poetry by black South African writers that she collected and had published.