To Every Birth Its Blood — Mongane Wally Serote

Lyrical, empathetic and hauntingly powerful, To Every Birth Its Blood explores the subjective experiences of a range of voices and characters who live, love and struggle in 1970s apartheid South Africa. Serote’s piercing treatment of the brutality of state violence, beatings, arrest, solitary confinement and exile is framed by black apathy, political awakening and the shift into violent dissent. Originally published in 1981, To Every Birth Its Blood, Serote’s debut novel, remains a seminal work that brings to life in vivid detail the birth of a revolutionary society.