Winnie and Nelson

Portrait of a Marriage

By: Jonny Steinberg

Narrated by: Puleng Lange-Stewart

Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • AN LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE FINALIST • A WASHINGTON POST AND NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A deeply researched, shattering new account of Nelson Mandela’s relationship with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela that “does justice both to the couple’s political heroism and to the betrayals and the secrets that hounded their union” (The New Yorker).

Drawing on never-before-seen material, Steinberg—one of South Africa’s foremost nonfiction writers—reveals the fractures and stubborn bonds at the heart of a volatile and groundbreaking union, a very modern political marriage that played out on the world stage.

“Powerful, intimate.”—The Washington Post

One of the most celebrated political leaders of a century, Nelson Mandela has been written about by many biographers and historians. But in one crucial area, his life remains largely untold: his marriage to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. During his years in prison, Nelson grew ever more in love with an idealized version of his wife, courting her in his letters as if they were young lovers frozen in time. But Winnie, every bit his political equal, found herself increasingly estranged from her jailed husband’s politics. Behind his back, she was trying to orchestrate an armed seizure of power, a path he feared would lead to an endless civil war.

Jonny Steinberg tells the tale of this unique marriage—its longings, its obsessions, its deceits—making South African history a captivating political biography. Winnie and Nelson is a modern epic in which trauma doesn’t affect just the couple at its center, but an entire nation. It is also a Shakespearean drama in which bonds of love and commitment mingle with timeless questions of revolution, such as whether to seek retribution or a negotiated peace. Steinberg reveals, with power and tender emotional insight, how far these forever-entwined leaders would go for each other and where they drew the line. For in the end, both knew theirs was not simply a marriage, but a contest to decide how apartheid should be fought.

©2023 Jonny Steinberg (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

*A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • AN LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE FINALIST • A 2023 Best Book of Nonfiction at The Washington Post, The Guardian, and The Times of London!*

“Powerful, intimate and ultimately heartbreaking . . . A portrait not just of a marriage but of a nation struggling to cast off its chains . . . [Steinberg’s] supreme contribution is in his ability to portray clearly and critically Nelson Mandela’s flaws and Winnie Mandela’s crimes, while expressing sympathy and understanding for both their courage and their pain.”—Glenn Frankel, The Washington Post

"Steinberg forces us, with extraordinary pathos..., to reckon with the humanity of his subjects and not the myths we have constructed around them."—Bongani Kona, The New York Times

"Steinberg’s book gives a detailed account of South Africa’s history over the century from Mandela’s birth in 1918 to his wife’s death. It is admirably researched and written, and quietly subversive...resist[ing] the wishful thinking that turns narrative arcs into rainbows"—Stephen Smith, London Review of Books

Outstanding insights into Winnie & Nelson myths & mastery

Well researched biography with profound explorations of their tortured marriage. Verbatim transcripts of recorded conversations between Mandela and his visitors at Robben Island.