Description: Mark Mathabane first came to prominence with the publication of Kaffir Boy, which became a New York Times bestseller. Miriam's Song is the story of Mark's sister who remained in South Africa when his family moved here. It is the gripping tale of a woman -- representative of an entire generation -- who came of age amid the violence and rebellion of the 1980s and finally saw the destruction of apartheid and the birth of a new and democratic South Africa.

Mark writes in Miriam's voice, based on stories she told him, but he has recreated her unforgettable experience as only someone who also lived through it could. The immediacy of the hardships that brother and sister endured -- from daily school beatings to near overwhelming poverty -- is balanced by the beauty of their childhood observations and the true affection that they have had for each other. Miriam emerges as both an innocent child drawn into the war against apartheid and a strong woman forever changed by the struggles, brutality, and politics of the world around her; Mark emerges once more as a writer of extraordinary ability, sensitivity, and insight.

Miriam's Song is memoir writing at its finest. With its courage, determination, resilience, hope, and faith, it is a truly inspirational story, spectacularly told.

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