I remember shaving off my beard in the bathroom on the eve of the camp, with Mahalia Jackson singing rousing spirituals from the living room. Afterwards my chin was strangely smooth, and seemed to have shrunk.

A work of deeply sensitive memories and reflections, this autobiography--a political history of the time--chronicles the turbulent life of a South African man. Including details of the author's childhood years, experiences while in the army, the loss of his father, and the memory of a nation, this book's delicate and finely tuned phrases appeal to the reader as the narrative twists and turns through time.