No Time Like The Present by Nadine Gordimer

 

The place is South Africa and the time is post-apartheid.  Steve and Jubulile are an interracial couple who met while fighting with the rebels to overthrow the racist government.  Now, they are just another couple trying to live a life.  They have two children a girl and a boy.  Steve is a college lecturer in engineering, Jubulile is a lawyer.  They move to the suburbs where they make friends, some they knew from their rebel days, some new friends.

The couple has different attitudes to the new way of living.  Jubulile was one of the first black women to receive an education and she feels that she needs to take advantage of the opportunities that has afforded her.  Steve has remained closer to his rebel days in his thoughts and is known as the most leftist lecturer at the college.  Eventually, this difference in attitude creates some distance in their marriage.  Jubulile also has differences with her adored father when he continues to support the new head of government because he comes from their tribe even though he has been accused of fraud and sexual misconduct.

Nadine Gordimer is a South African author whose work has won both the Nobel Prize for Literature and The Booker.  She has also had another book longlisted on the Booker Prize.  Her work focused on South Africa both before and post apartheid.  She was also known as an activist and lived and worked during the times of Nelson Mandela's imprisonment and release to become the head of government.  Her work discusses the difficulties of that time and the alienation that both native and white South Africans felt as their country underwent a cataclysmic change.  This book is recommended for literary and historical fiction readers.