Post-Traumatic: South African Short Stories

by Chris van Wyk (Editor), Vagn Plenge (Editor)

The contributors of this anthology make up a wide spectrum of South black, white, men and women, established and budding who write in either English or Afrikaans. Among these are writers who began their careers in the fifties (George Weideman), to those who were active in the black consciousness period of the seventies (Achmat Dangor, Chris van Wyk, Maropodi Mapalakanye) through to writers who first appeared in print in the eighties and nineties (Rayda Jacobs, Finuala Dowling, Zachariah Raphola, Roshila Nair, Roy Blumenthal, Allan Kolski Horwitz). While many of the writers in this anthology have established themselves as poets, novelists, dramatists and oral storytellers, they all choose the short story as another means of expressing a diverse South Africa of rural and urban life, white suburbia, black township, childhood, love, hate, reconciliation, the grim as well as the funny that make up the tapestry of a country as it used to be and as it is today.

238 pages, Paperback

First published December 18, 2013

Reviews

[Kaycie Edeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the short stories in this book were better than others for sure. I think when taking the book in as a whole, there is an interesting aspect to it having to do with the education/background of the particular authors, due to Apartheid, that kind of makes up for some of the writing that I didn't deem as good. Also, I know full well that I'm not an expert on all things South African, so there is a possibility that some of the writing that I didn't like as much was just going over my head culturally. Overall I'm glad I read it, but I don't think it's a great read for everyone.