The Rich Man of Pietermaritzburg

Translated for the first time from Africa's native Zulu language, this novel set in apartheid-era rural South Africa follows an urban swindler as he attempts to take advantage of well-meaning but naive villagers, claiming to be on a mission of salvation—but in truth looking for instant riches. Both hilarious and tender, it explores the fateful confrontation between pastoral benevolence and urban slyness in a peasant countryside that is being destroyed by the rapid loss of land and liberties.