World of Strangers

Toby Hood, a young Englishman, shuns the politics and the causes his liberal parents passionately support. Living in Johannesburg as a representative of his family's publishing company, Toby moves easily, carelessly, between the complacent wealthy white suburbs and the seething, vibrantly alive black townships. His friends include a wide variety of people, from mining directors to black journalists and musicians, and Toby's colonial-style weekends are often interspersed with clandestine evenings spent in black shanty towns. Toby's friendship with Steven Sithole, a dashing, embittered young African, touches him in ways he never thought possible, and when Steven's own sense of independence from the rules of society leads to tragedy, Toby's life is changed forever.

'An authentic work of art ... Gordimer's characters are universal. It is to the moments of greatest stress, when frail structures of idealism are being tested by shaking realities, that Gordimer gives the form of literature' NEW YORK TIMES

Nadine Gordimer's many novels include THE LYING DAYS, THE CONSERVATIONIST, joint winner of the Booker Prize, BURGER'S DAUGHTER, JULY'S PEOPLE, MY SON'S STORY, NONE TO ACCOMPANY ME, A GUEST OF HONOUR and THE HOUSE GUN. Her collections of short stories include SOMETHING OUT THERE and JUMP. In 1991 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. She lives in South Africa.