Historical Fiction South Africa

This is the most distinguished novel that has come out of South Africa in the 20th century, and it is one of the most important novels of the modern era. Cry, the Beloved Country is in some ways a sad book; it is an indictment of a social system that drives native races into resentment and crime; it is a story of Fate, as inevitable, as relentless, as anything of Thomas Hardy's. Beautifully wrought with high poetic compassion, Cry, the Beloved Country is more than just a story, it is a profound experience of the human spirit.

Abigail was the last keeper of the house, the last to know the Howland family's secrets. Now, in the name of all her brothers and sisters, she must take her bitter revenge on the small-minded Southern town that shamed them, persecuted them, but could never destroy them.

The Weight of Her Name: The Cost of Obedience is a historical novel set on a Southern plantation in 1860, on the eve of the Civil War. Sarah is an enslaved woman whose life is governed by routine, silence, and unspoken expectation. Within the Harrison household, obedience is not merely demanded, it is watched for, measured, and rewarded or punished in ways that are rarely explicit and never simple. Survival depends on knowing when to speak, when to remain still, and when even compliance carries its own danger. As Sarah navigates the intimate power structures of the house, small choices ...

Monck’s Corner, South Carolina, 1739. When Mae Briscoe learns that a small group of slaves plans to flee to Florida for freedom among the Spanish, she knows she must go with them. The master’s son has been far too friendly lately, and there’s no one to protect her. She knows the trek will be rough, and it will be hard adapting to a new culture, but given the circumstances, the call of freedom is too strong to resist. Thus, she begins an adventure of a lifetime, heading south to freedom.

For years, it was called a "deteriorating situation." Now it is war. All over South Africa, mobs of fugitive white people scramble to board departing flights. But Bam and Maureen Smales have no such option. They take up their servant July's suggestion and seek refuge in his remote home village, forever altering the relationship of servant and master. Now it is the Smales who are dependent on their host, their savior - their keeper. Nadine Gordimer is the winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Waiting to enter a movie theater to see "Dr. No," the first James Bond movie, Simon sees a cute Black girl standing in a separate line that leads to the balcony, the "colored" section. A friend tells him, "You're in the South. Stick with your own kind.” Simon doesn't. It's the steamy summer of 1963. Simon Klein has moved with his family, Jews from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Pickettville, Alabama, where his father has taken a job at a nearby Army base. He is as mystified of the South as Southerners are of a Jew While gathering information for a story he is writing for his school paper, Simon ...

A forbidden affair. A city on the edge. A choice that could cost everything. In the pre–Civil War South, New Orleans is a city divided by wealth and bondage, power and desperation. Trent, a plantation master, finds his world spiraling out of control when his secret affair with a slave unleashes betrayal, vengeance, and the threat of ruin. Caught in the storm are Amana, Tabari, and others whose lives intertwine in a struggle for dignity and freedom. Every decision they make carries a price — and survival demands both courage and sacrifice. Keeper of Slaves is the second novel in the ...

From the two-time Emmy Award–winning producer and host of the Black and Published podcast comes a sweeping multi-generational epic following seven generations of Dupree women as they navigate love, loss, and the unyielding ties of family in the tradition of Homegoing and The Love Songs of W.E...

Freedom has a price—and Eve is about to pay it. Mississippi, 1860. Beneath the blistering heat of the cotton fields, Eve dreams of escape. When a brutal overseer’s cruelty pushes her past the breaking point, she flees into the night with only faith—and fear—as companions. On the run, Eve finds an unlikely ally in Nate, a runaway determined to reach freedom across the Detroit River. Guided by whispers of the Underground Railroad, they travel north through hidden trails and Quaker safe houses. But deep in Indiana, they encounter Clem, a terrified teenage boy newly escaped—a meeting ...

Secrets buried in the Delta. Freedom paid for in blood. In the 1850s Deep South, Amana is born into bondage. Torn from her family and sold to a ruthless Louisiana plantation master, she must fight for dignity, survival, and the faint hope of freedom. As alliances form and betrayals spread, Amana’s every choice carries deadly consequences—not just for herself, but for those she dares to love. Antebellum Struggles launches a sweeping three-part saga of love, loss, and resistance. From the sugarcane fields to the riverbanks of New Orleans, slaves and masters alike are caught in a world ...

Betrayal cuts deep. Freedom demands everything. In the antebellum South, loyalties collapse and secrets erupt as masters and slaves are forced to choose sides. Rivalries flare, alliances shift, and every decision could mean survival — or destruction. At the heart of it all lies one final reckoning: a moment where courage collides with cruelty, and love risks being consumed by power. Slaves of Fools is the third novel in the Antebellum Struggles series — but it can be read as a standalone story. Gripping and unflinching, it delivers a powerful tale of resilience, sacrifice, and the ...

One girl. One journey. A fight for freedom against impossible odds. Virginia, 1858. Torn from one plantation to the next, young Venus endures cruelty at every turn — yet discovers glimmers of unexpected kindness and courage. As she struggles to survive in a world ruled by greed and violence, her path collides with fellow slaves yearning for freedom and abolitionists willing to risk their lives along the Underground Railroad. With every step, Venus must choose between fear and defiance, despair and hope. Her choices will shape not only her future, but the lives of all who walk beside her. ...

Danger deepens. Betrayal cuts closer. The fight for freedom is far from over. Sunny Washington’s escape was only the beginning. Now hunted across the South, she faces new trials that threaten not just her life but the lives of those she dares to trust. Slave catchers close in, betrayals emerge from the shadows, and every step forward carries a price. As Sunny’s courage is tested in ways she never imagined, she must decide who to stand with, who to fight for, and what she’s willing to risk for freedom, justice, and love. The Adventures of Sunny Washington: Book Two delivers a gripping ...

Born in a South Africa divided by racism and hatred, this one small boy will come to lead all the tribes of Africa. Through enduring friendships with Hymie and Gideon, Peekay gains the strength he needs to win out. And in a final conflict with his childhood enemy, the Judge, Peekay will fight to the death for justice.

From the author of The Power of One comes a new novel about Africa. The time is 1939. White South Africa is a deeply divided nation with many of the Afrikaner people fanatically opposed to the English. The world is also on the brink of war, and South Africa elects to fight for the Allied cause against Germany. Six-year-old Tom Fitzsaxby finds himself in The Boys Farm, an orphanage in a remote town in the high mountains, where the Afrikaners side fiercely with Hitler's Germany.

BEFORE GOLD. BEFORE SILVER. THERE WERE PEARLS. In 1498, Christopher Columbus made a discovery that would change the world forever. Not gold. Not silver. 👉 Pearls. Hidden beneath the Caribbean lay unimaginable wealth — and the beginning of a system built on exploitation, slavery, and human suffering. A STORY ROOTED IN REAL HISTORY Blood for Pearls is inspired by true events and reveals a forgotten chapter of history: 👉 the first economic engine of the Americas — powered by pearls. Through the lives of: Charaima, an Indigenous boy torn from his world Dembe, an African forced into ...

“A debut of enormous ambition” spanning eight generations of a Black family in West Tennessee as they are repeatedly visited by the Devil (Nathan Harris, New York Times bestselling author of The Sweetness of Water) Yetunde awakens aboard a slave ship en route to the United States with the...

Newbery Medalist Christopher Paul Curtis brings his trademark humor and heart to the story of a boy struggling to do right in the face of history's cruelest evils. Twelve-year-old Charlie is down on his luck: His dad just died, the share crops are dry, and Cap'n Buck--the most fearsome man in...

Twenty years after Ouma Gretchen’s death, her favourite grandson Craig Venter is clearing old papers on his smallholding outside Okahandja when he stumbles on the few belongings of hers that were never thrown out: two letters, a faded hand-drawn map, a rusted knife blade, and, hidden in a snuff box, a rough diamond. Widowed himself and newly vulnerable to the claims of memory, Craig follows the trail south to Mariental and Maltahöhe, into old farm country where stories have survived in fragments. What he slowly reconstructs is darker and more extraordinary than family legend ever allowed...

Thomas Kettle never wanted to be a soldier. He wanted to be left alone with other people's wallets. Toronto, October 1899. The Empire is at war and the city has gone mad with recruiting fever. Twenty-year-old pickpocket Thomas Kettle doesn't care about the Queen, the Boers, or the Transvaal. He cares about the constable who's been closing in for weeks — and the stolen uniform that was supposed to be his ticket out of town, not his ticket to Africa. Caught at the depot by a sergeant who sees straight through his lies, Kettle is given a choice: enlist or go to jail. He picks the army. He ...