A collection of ten fine stories, written languidly and cooly, but also sharply. Without preconceptions, leaves all the judgements to the reader. Gives you a lot of splendid material to meditate about.
Gordimer spent all her life in South African Republic, one of her most used themes is said to be Apartheid. But one cannot restrict her to that frame only; she writes about characters and deeds that can be found anywhere.

RELEASE NOTES:

via mail to White Dwarf Star

Last but not least in the series of parcels that came from faraway Portugal. Warm thanks to tanja. I suppose it is my turn...

Loot Parable. People should leave past where it rests submerged under the layers of time. There is no exception, not even for writers. One I have chosen to relate in otherwise boundless sea of possible explanations. More to the point would be the following I came up after reading all the short stories (Karma, in particular) included in the book and rereading the first. Tidal wave in Loot is most likely the metaphor for great social and political changes, that bring along the opportunities for both wealth and promotion, providing you are in the right place at the right time. The moral is: easy come, easy go. There is no such place as the right place.
Mission Statement The one I liked most, besides An Emissary and The Generation Gap.
Visiting George Sweet and sad. If you live long enough, only places remain. Changed. No friends left to remember the past with.
If I dreamt this, while walking, walking in the London streets, the subconscious of each and every other life, past and present, brushing me in passing, what makes it real? Writing it down.
The Generation Gap Very well written. An effectual ending.
L,U,C,I,E. About past and present. Another generation gap.
Look-alikes Left me confused after the first reading. Look-alikes is written from a point of view of white student in the times of Apartheid in the JAR. In her failing to understand what connects a number of professors in the campus and the squatting natives, all the narrow-mindedness and the egoism of the ruling class are exposed. In short, an ingenious critique of racial segregation.
The Diamond Mine Coming of age.
Homage A lament of a refugee. Nameless, I will not name him an assassin.
An Emissary '...how few Westerners grasp malaria's devastation. That said, its global toll remais staggering. In the last 20 years, it has killed nearly twice as many people as AIDS... Malarial mosquitoes can even stow away on internatiol flights - just ask recent unsuspecting victims near airport in Germany, Paris and Sao Paulo.'
Thus commences the last but one story. Ther reader it compelled to listen to the blood-curdling song of mosquito. [Anopheles is a genus of mosquito (Culicidae). Anopheles gambiae is one of the best known, because of its predominant role in the transmission of the most dangerous Plasmodium falciparum. There are approximately 400 Anopheles species, of which 30-40 transmit four different species of parasites of the genus Plasmodium that cause malaria which affects humans in endemic areas. Malaria, derived from male aria and formerly called ague or marsh fever in English, is an infectious disease which causes about 350-500 million infections with humans and approximately 1.3 - 3 million deaths annually , mainly in the tropics. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 85-90% of these fatalities. The death rate is expected to double in the next 20 years. The exact statistics are unknown because many cases occur in rural areas where people do not have access to hospitals and/or the means to afford health care. Consequently, many cases are treated at home and are undocumented. [Wikipaedia on Anopheles]] Or not treated at all. Help is needed.
Karma Miscellaneous. Interestingly, if loosely connected stories.

What a nice surprise! This is the first unexpected RABCK I ever received. Others were always somehow "announced" or "won".

This will also be the first book by Nadine Gordimer I will read. I put her name and a book (at random) on my wish list as a few weeks ago everything around me seemed to point in the direction of South Africa all of a sudden.

Thank you so much WhiteDwarfStar, also for the nice postcard! I have some other books to finish first, but I will come back here, to tell what I thought about it.

Moved this book to top of MTBR this week, as I thought it was the perfect gift for Annelis in Finland. She won my surprise package in Tracy Shannon's Haloween BC contest
According to her profile, she participates in two challenges this book will qualify for: the Nobel Prize winners and books from all UN-countries.

Though as a rule I don't like short stories too much, I did indeed enjoy "Loot" and will certainly try novels by Nadine Gordimer, as her style of writing pleases me.

I hope Annelis will enjoy it too! It has been posted today.

Book with other surprises arrived three days ago while I was in bed with flu and they got me better right away! Thank you very much, Bestfriends! You are quite right, too. I very much like to read this book. I read some book of Nadine Gordimer a long time ago and I do have a very vague picture about how it was like. I want to refresh my memory about how she writes her stories. And I am sure I can find other readers for this book after finishing it. There are many others who like to read a book by each Nobel winner, too.
Thank you and have a nice time waiting for Christmas and afterwards, too!

This book will travel to Africa.
Happy reading!

Thank you Annelis for remembering my African project!