A staggering achievement, Telling Times reflects the true spirit of the
writer as a literary beacon, moral activist, and political visionary. Few
writers have been so much at the center of historic events as Nadine
Gordimer. Telling Times, the first comprehensive collection of her
nonfiction, bears insightful witness to the forces that have shaped the
last half-century. It includes reports from Soweto during the 1976
uprising, Zimbabwe at the dawn of independence, and Africa at the start of
the AIDS pandemic, as well as illuminating portraits of Nelson Mandela,
Desmond Tutu, and many others. Committed first and foremost to art,
Gordimer appraises the legacies of hallowed writers like Tolstoy, Proust,
and Conrad, and engages vigorously with contemporaries like Achebe, Said,
and Soyinka. No other writer has so consistently evoked the feel of
Africa—its landscapes, cities, and people—through a remarkable range of
travel writing, from Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire to Egypt and along the Congo
River. With nearly one hundred pieces from six decades of work, Telling
Times is an extraordinary summation from a writer whose enduring courage
and commitment to human freedom has made her a moral compass of our time.