Shades Of Difference: Mac Maharaj and the Struggle for South Africa

The inside story of South Africa's anti-apartheid movement, told through the experiences of its unsung hero written byPadraig O'Malley, the subject of the new acclaimed documentary The Peacemaker. The struggle in South Africa to destroy apartheid was one of the great moral crusades of the last century, and Mac Maharaj played a pivotal role in the liberation movement for nearly four decades. A South African of Indian descent, Maharaj suffered brutal tortures and twelve years of imprisonment on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela. It was Maharaj who smuggled out the manuscript of Mandela's autobiography, and he later served in his government. Based on extensive interviews with Maharaj over the last eleven years and hitherto unavailable documents, Padraig O'Malley's vividly rendered tale will enthrall anyone interested in a true story of heroism and the story of a people's struggle for freedom.

About the Author :
Padraig O'Malleyis the Moakley Chair of Peace and Reconciliation at the McCormack Graduate School of Global and Policy Studies, University of Massachusetts. He has dedicated his career to studying and helping to resolve conflicts in Northern Ireland, South Africa, and beyond. He is the author ofShades of DifferenceandBiting at the Grave, one oftheNew York Times's ten best books of 1990. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) was born in Transkei, South Africa. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party's apartheid policies from 1948 until his arrest in 1962. In November 1962 he was sentenced to five years in prison and started serving his sentence at Robben Island Prison in 1963 before being brought back to Pretoria to stand in the Rivonia Trial. From 1964 to 1982, he was again incarcerated at Robben Island Prison and then later moved to Pollsmoor Prison, during which his reputation as a potent symbol of resistance to the anti-apartheid movement grew steadily. Released from prison in 1990, Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 and was inaugurated as the first democratically-elected president of South Africa in 1994. He is the author of the international bestsellerLong Walk to Freedom.

Review :
"[Shades of Difference] is exactly what O'Malley set out to achieve: 'a portrait of Mac and of South Africa.' It is a striking success." -The New York Times Book Review "[O'Malley] is knowledgeable and sure-footed as he recounts this story . . . making a complex narrative on the whole quite clear." -San Francisco Chronicle "A groundbreaking biography of a central figure in the fight to end South African apartheid." -Publishers Weekly "Brilliantly written." -Library Journal (starred review)