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Athol Fugard is renowned for his relentless explorations of personal and political survival in apartheid South Africa — which include his now classic plays Master Harold and the Boys and The Blood Knot. Fugard has written a single novel, Tsotsi, which director Gavin Hood has made into a feature film that is South Africa's official entry for the 2006 Academy Awards. Set amid the sprawling Johannesburg township of Soweto, where survival is the primary objective, Tsotsi traces six days in the life of a ruthless young gang leader.
When we meet Tsotsi, he is a man without a name (tsotsi is Afrikaans for "hoodlum") who has repressed his past and now exists only to stage and execute vicious crimes. When he inadvertently kidnaps a baby, Tsotsi is confronted with memories of his own painful childhood, and this angry young man begins to rediscover his own humanity, dignity, and capacity to love.
Praise for Tsotsi
“In lean yet lyrical prose...[Athol Fugard] uncannily insinuates himself into the skins of the oppressed majority and articulates its rage and misery and hope.” —The New York Times Book Review
“One of the best novels in contemporary South African fiction.” —The Times Literary Supplement
Born in Middleburg, South Africa, in 1932, Athol Fugard has written, directed, and acted in over twenty plays, the most recent of which was Exits and Entrances.