July's People

A startling, imaginative novel from the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

For years, it had been what is called a €œdeteriorating situation.€ Now all over South Africa the cities are battlegrounds. The members of the Smales family€"liberal whites€"are rescued from the terror by their servant, July, who leads them to refuge in his village. What happens to the Smaleses and to July€"the shifts in character and relationships€"gives us an unforgettable look into the terrifying, tacit understandings and misunderstandings between blacks and whites.

€œSo flawlessly written that every one of its events seems chillingly, ominously possible.€€"Anne Tyler, The New York Times Book Review