Dirk Klopper

Following two successful publications with Hatje Cantz, photographer David Lurie now turns his attention to two of the most pressing issues facing South Africa and the global ecosystem today, namely land and drought. The “Karoo” (meaning Land of Thirst) is a semi-desert landscape in the high plains of South Africa, occupying nearly a third of the country. Due to its extremes of climate, this vast hinterland was largely uninhabited by European settlers until the early nineteenth century, but since then intensive sheep farming has destroyed the Karoo’s sensitive ecological balance, which has become increasingly arid, even compromising South Africa’s food security. In his highly subjective style, Lurie captures the vast, barren Karoo plains, stone mounds, gravel roads, abandoned towns, and rare water sources. His images inquire into the influence of humans on the environment and remind us of the importance, as well as the fundamental beauty, of nature.

From the outset, South Africa's history has been marked by division and conflict along racial and ethnic lines. From 1948 until 1994, this division was formalized in the National Party's policy of apartheid. Because apartheid intruded on every aspect of private and public life, South African literature was preoccupied with the politics of race and social engineering. Since the release from prison of Nelson Mandela in 1990, South Africa has been a new nation-in-the-making, inspired by a nonracial idealism yet beset by poverty and violence. South African writers have responded in various ways to Njabulo Ndebele's call to "rediscover the ordinary." The result has been a kaleidoscope of texts in which evolving cultural forms and modes of identity are rearticulated and explored. An invaluable guide for general readers as well as scholars of African literary history, this comprehensive text celebrates the multiple traditions and exciting future of the South African voice. Although the South African Constitution of 1994 recognizes no fewer than eleven official languages, English has remained the country's literary lingua franca. This book offers a narrative overview of South African literary production in English from 1945 to the postapartheid present. An introduction identifies the most interesting and noteworthy writing from the period. Alphabetical entries provide accurate and objective information on genres and writers. An appendix lists essential authors published before 1945.