The Librarians' Choice - Top 20 South African Books, 1994-2014

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

LISA (Library and Information Association of South Africa), 20 Books

"Library workers across South Africa have been requested to identify the top twenty South African books published during these 20 years that reflect South African life by South Africans... It must be written by a South African author in one of our official languages and must be published for the first time between 1994 and 2014".

This list was originally published in 2014 and was added to this site almost 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
2276 Long Walk To Freedom Nelson Mandela 1994 South African English
6136 Country Of My Skull Antjie Krog 1998 South African Afrikaans
17171 I Have Life Marianne Thamm 1998 Unknown English
255 Disgrace J. M. Coetzee 1999 South African English
17171 Jamela's Dress Niki Daly 1999 South African English
14986 The Heart Of Redness Zakes Mda 2000 South African English
17171 The Madonna Of Excelsior Zakes Mda 2002 South African English
17171 Confessions Of A Gambler Rayda Jacobs 2003 South African English
17171 Dis Ek, Anna Elbie Lötter 2004 South African Afrikaans
17171 Agaat Marlene van Niekerk 2004 South African Afrikaans
17171 Shirley, Goodness & Mercy Chris van Wyk 2004 South African English
17171 Spud John van de Ruit 2005 South African English
17171 Thabo Mbeki Mark Gevisser 2007 Unknown English
17171 Anderkant Pontenilo Irma Joubert 2007 South African Afrikaans
7881 13 Hours Deon Meyer 2008 South African Afrikaans
17171 The Elephant Whisperer Lawrence Anthony 2009 South African English
17171 Thula Thula Annelie Botes 2009 Unknown Unknown
17171 My Father, My Monster McIntosh Polela 2011 Unknown English
17171 Eight Days In September Frank Chikane 2012 South African English
17171 Endings & Beginnings Redi Tlhabi 2012 South African English