The Plot to Save South Africa

November 1, 2022

The Guardian's Ireland correspondent, Carroll chronicles the IRA's attempt to assassinate Margaret Thatcher in October 1984 in There Will Be Fire. Published on Israel's 75th anniversary, two-time National Jewish Book Award winner Gordis's Impossible Takes Longer considers whether Israel's founders achieved their goal of creating a national homeland that would transform Jewish life (60,000-copy first printing). In 1742, a ship landed on Brazil's coast with 30 starving men feted as survivors of the wrecked British warship the Wager--until three months later, when three stragglers on another ship landing in Chile claimed the Wager's men were mutineers; from the No. 1 New York Times best-selling Grann (Killers of the Flower Moon). Chair of medieval history at King's College, London, Heather offers new reasons why Christendom grew from a tiny sect persecuted within foundering fourth-century CE Rome to the religion dominating Europe 1,000 years later. Celebrated Czech novelist Kundera, who has lived in France since 1975, argues that the "small nations" of Europe--e.g., Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Ukraine--are culturally rooted in Europe and under Soviet rule constituted A Kidnapped West (40,000-copy first printing). Following the LJ-starred The Crown in Crisis, which chronicled the Abdication Crisis of 1936, British historian Larman's The Windsors at War moves on to King George VI and the conflict within the Windsor family during World War II as the Duke of Windsor cozied up to Hitler (40,000-copy first printing). From leading South African political commentator Malala, The Plot To Save South Africa covers the 1993 assassination of Nelson Mandela's prot�g� Chris Hani by a white supremacist hoping to ignite a war, even as Mandela had begun power-sharing discussions with President FW de Klerk. Good-bye, Eastern Europe broadly documents the region briefly called Eastern Europe, moving from pre-Christian times through the great empires (Ottoman, Hapsburg, and Russian), the rise of communism and fascism, and the post-Soviet era to Russia's invasion of Ukraine; A Polish-born contributor to the Atlantic, has a PhD in Eastern European history from Berkeley (25,000-copy first printing). Granted special access by Queen Elizabeth II to her parents' letters and diaries and to the papers of close friends and family, Smith, the New York Times best-selling author of Elizabeth the Queen, aims to show how a loving marriage helped George VI and Elizabeth lead a nation through war (50,000-copy first printing). From Simon, a former senior director for Middle Eastern and North African Affairs on the National Security Council, Grand Delusion tracks the four decades of oil-driven U.S. involvement in the Middle East, begun by the Reagan administration and moving through Desert Storm (which he challenges) to the Obama administration's step back. The acclaimed Winchester leaps nimbly from cuneiform writings through Gutenberg to Google and Wikipedia as he examines Knowing What We Know--that is, how we acquire, retain, and pass on information--and how technology's current capability to do those things for us might be threatening our ability to think (100,000-copy first printing).

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February 27, 2023
On Apr. 10, 1993, a white supremacist assassinated African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela’s protégé, Chris Hani, intending to “ignite a race war that would put a stop to all attempts to end apartheid in South Africa.” In this gripping account of the killing and its aftermath, journalist Malala (We Have Now Begun Our Descent) documents how Mandela and South African president F.W. de Klerk worked together to prevent the country from descending into chaos and rein in the most extreme factions of their respective constituencies, including de Klerk’s hawkish Minister of Law and Order, Hernus Kriel, and Mandela’s fiery confidant Bantu Holomisa, military leader of the Transkei homeland. Interspersing the narrative with snippets of South African history, Malala covers the unrest from the perspectives of ANC leaders, government ministers, far-right agitators, grieving citizens, and those who kept the channel of communication between Mandela and de Klerk open. Despite Mandela’s anger at de Klerk’s failure to acknowledge his government’s past role in covert assassinations, he kept his focus on securing the free and fair elections that would ultimately lead to majority rule in South Africa. Doggedly researched and immersively told, this is a fascinating study of a nation on the brink.

March 1, 2023
A focused study of a key moment in South African history when "people were prepared to set the country on fire to retain the apartheid system." In his latest, longtime South African journalist Malala, author of We Have Now Begun Our Descent, homes in on the days following the assassination of African National Congress leader Chris Hani by a right-wing fanatic in April 1993, a fraught time that would determine whether the nation would descend into more racial violence or attain a peaceful transition of power. As president of the ANC, Nelson Mandela was involved in ongoing discussions with F.W. De Klerk and his National Party government. However, with the assassination of Hani, the chief of staff of the military wing of the ANC, the talks were disrupted, and violence seemed imminent. Malala, a well-respected journalist, was a rookie reporter at Johannesburg's English-language daily, the Star, and he was right in the middle of the political upheaval during those perilous days when the country tottered on the brink of civil war. In this page-turning account, the author moves chronologically, beginning with the shooting of Hani outside his Dawn Park home by a pro-apartheid extremist, aided by conservative parliamentarian Clive Derby-Lewis. They believed that making peace with "terrorist" Mandela was a form of "selling out" Whites and Afrikaners. Despite the angry backlash that erupted in the Black townships, suppressed violently by the government forces, Mandela repeatedly appealed for peace. A night vigil for Hani involved numerous important speakers, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mandela; the same was true at Hani's funeral, but no South African government officials attended. The assassins, while linked to pro-apartheid organizations, were not proven to have been tied to a wider conspiracy. After Hani's death, however, the Transitional Executive Council set the date for the first multiracial election in South Africa. The author includes a cast of characters, list of relevant organizations, and a timeline. A suspenseful nonfiction thriller featuring valuable firsthand observation.

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Starred review from February 1, 2023
South African newspaper columnist and political commentator Malala recounts hour-by-hour details of nine harrowing days rife with racial tension, violence, and political negotiations that ultimately led to freedom and democracy in South Africa. Malala begins with April 10, 1993, when South Africa was plunged into chaos when the well-known opponent of the apartheid regime, Chris Hani, was assassinated. South African President F. W. de Klerk was working with leaders of the African National Congress to dismantle apartheid laws, but the transition to a democratic government was proceeding slowly. Racist factions worked to disrupt the momentum and drive the county into civil war. When Hani's assassin, Janusz Waluś, was captured, a disturbing hit list was discovered including the names of other famous freedom fighters and future president Nelson Mandela. De Klerk and Mandela knew this brutal assassination had the potential to derail a peaceful transition to free and fair elections, and de Klerk also understood that he had to step aside and allow Mandela, "a man who had no state power . . . [to] step forward and attempt to assuage Black anger and fears, temper white angst, and hold out a beacon to a peaceful future." Although heart-wrenching at times, Malala's immaculately researched account underscores the power of Mandela's great leadership in unimaginably difficult times.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.