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Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage
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About This Book
From one of South Africa's foremost nonfiction writers, a deeply researched, shattering new account of Nelson Mandela's relationship with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Drawing on never-before-seen material, Steinberg reveals the fractures and stubborn bonds at the heart of a volatile and groundbreaking union, a very modern political marriage that played out on the world stage. One of the most celebrated political leaders of a century, Nelson Mandela has been written about by many biographers and historians. But in one crucial area, his life remains largely untold: his marriage to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. During his years in prison, Nelson grew ever more in love with an idealized version of his wife, courting her in his letters as if they were young lovers frozen in time. But Winnie, every bit his political equal, found herself increasingly estranged from her jailed husband's politics. Behind his back, she was trying to orchestrate an armed seizure of power, a path he feared would lead to an endless civil war. Jonny Steinberg tells the tale of this unique marriage--its longings, its obsessions, its deceits--making South African history a page-turning political biography. Winnie and Nelson is a modern epic in which trauma doesn't affect just the couple at its center, but an entire nation. It is also a Shakespearean drama in which bonds of love and commitment mingle with timeless questions of revolution, such as whether to seek retribution or a negotiated peace. Steinberg reveals, with power and tender emotional insight, how far these forever-entwined leaders would go for each other and where they drew the line. For in the end, both knew theirs was not simply a marriage, but a contest to decide how apartheid should be fought.
Reviews
"Steinberg suspects that the couple's myths will only endure – but his thorough interrogation of their story should help readers reconcile themselves with the messier truth."
"There are times when you can feel Steinberg struggling to be balanced about his subjects."
"Steinberg is aided in this task by a collection of some 15,000 pages of transcripts and notes that were only recently made available to scholars."
"captures the mythic quality of these two leaders, their great love story and tragic estrangement, and the hubris and human frailty beneath the personas ..."
"Readers will be mesmerized by the thrumming tension and profound emotional complexity of this intimate portrait of two global icons."
"But the final portrait is nonetheless devastating, and some readers will put down the book feeling they might have preferred not to know."
"In Steinberg's telling, the pair are like twin planets that exert immense gravitational forces on each other ..."
"Many of the details in Steinberg's masterful account have long been public knowledge thanks to court cases, newspaper articles and previous books."
"But this book is not about debunking the Mandela myth."
"This is a superb addition to the history of South Africa and the struggle against apartheid."
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