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092Novella· 1962· South Africa

A Walk in the Night

Alex La Guma

One night in District Six, a sacking ends in blood.

Set over one night in Cape Town's District Six, it traces Michael Adonis, a coloured man sacked from his job, whose drift into violence exposes the machinery of apartheid on the street. La Guma, himself banned and detained, wrote with a naturalist's precision about the poor. First published in Nigeria in 1962, the novella became a model of committed South African realism from within the oppressed community.

Author
Alex La Guma
First published
1962
Genre
Novella
Theme
East, Southern and North African Literature