ABOUT
THE BOOK

This novel is Mongane Wally Serote’s first since his acclaimed To Every Birth its Blood. It sets out to document the latter years of the liberation struggle in South Africa, and successfully conveys the bewilderment and uncertainty that were the experience of those involved in the historic events of the time. The overall impression is of a multitude of characters who enter the pages in an apparently random manner and then, inexplicably, disappear again. This intriguing device gives a sense of the mood of those days, when people really did come and go, frequently disappearing without explanation or trace.

Gods of Our Time is a challenging and enriching experience, one that fills an important gap in South Africa’s history, and, in many ways, exemplifies the shifts in novel-writing itself in this country.