In Nadine Gordimer’s second novel, A World of Strangers, twenty-six-year-old Tobias Hood (Toby), has been asked by his uncle to travel to Johannesburg and for a few months take charge of the operations of the South African branch of the family’s publishing firm, Aden Parrot, while the permanent director is on temporary leave. With the War concluded, the South African government, to the horror of much of the civilized world, has imposed a system of apartheid on the country’s overwhelmingly black population. But Toby, Oxford educated, a self-involved child of wealth and privilege, has no interest in politics or racial justice. And though his radical, liberal-minded parents urge him to look into the plight of the Indian minority and maybe even issue “a weekly newsletter on the effects of racial segregation,” he announces that his purpose in going to Africa is to sell books and advance the firm’s interests. As his adventure gets underway, Toby wants nothing more than to make it through his assignment untouched and unscathed, return home to England and resume his life where it left off. Toby’s initial engagement with South African society occurs at the home of a wealthy white family, the Alexanders, acquaintances of his mother. It is at a party at the Alexanders’ opulent estate (modelled after the English country house) that he meets Cecil Rowe, a young, attractive aspiring model, and soon finds himself falling in love. But then, shortly after assuming his duties at Aden Parrot, he meets Anna Louw, a legal aid lawyer working on behalf of those facing legal problems who can’t afford to hire a lawyer. Through Anna, Toby is ushered into a very different sort of world. Government housing policy has forced native Africans into settlements outside the city, where they live in crowded conditions and often in ramshackle or jerry-rigged dwellings with antiquated or unreliable infrastructure support. It is here, in the townships, that Toby encounters many black Africans and is drawn into their lives and their vibrant culture. Toby, while aware that he is a product of the ruling class and the world of white privilege, finds himself irresistibly drawn to the other, and as he makes new friends and witnesses their struggles and the senseless injustices they face each and every day, his sympathies begin to shift. Gordimer’s leisurely paced, gracefully written novel never preaches. Toby’s dramatic turn of mind—inspired by several key events—is subtle and gradual. In the end—caught between two irreconcilable worlds and conflicting ways of life—he finds himself facing impossible decisions. A World of Strangers is a cleverly executed indictment of apartheid—it was banned in South Africa for 12 years following its publication in 1958. But it is also infused with the wisdom of lived experience and clear-eyed observation. And, as always with this author, it is insightful, penetrating and truthful. ( )