Loot and Other Stories

Loot and Other Stories

With her characteristic brilliance, Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer follows the inner lives of characters confronted by unforeseen circumstances. An earthquake offers tragedy and opportunity in the title story, exposing both an ocean bed strewn with treasure and the avarice of the town's survivors. "Mission Statement" is the story of a bureaucrat's idealism, the ghosts of colonial history, and a love affair with a government minister that ends astoundingly. And in "Karma," Gordimer's inventiveness knows no bounds: in five returns to earthly life, a disembodied narrator, taking on different ages and genders, testifies to unfinished business and questions the nature of existence. Revelatory and powerful, these are stories that challenge our deepest convictions even as they dazzle us with their artful lyricism. GordimerÆs meticulous charting of human weakness and self-deception is as exact as ever... Deeply exhilarating.( The Boston Globe ) Gordimer is brilliant... Her stories are achingly beautiful. ( Pittsburgh Post- Gazette ) A remarkable collection. ( Richmond Times-Dispatch ) Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014) Born in Springs, South Africa, she was the author of fourteen novels, including  A Guest of Honour ,  The Conservationist ,  Burger’s Daughter ,  July’s People ,  A Sport of Nature ,  My Son’s Story  and  None to Accompany Me . Her short fictio was published in eleven collections including  Jump , and  Why Haven’t You Written: Selected Stories 1950-1972 . Her nonfiction includes  The Essential Gesture ;  On the Mines ;  The Black Interpreters . She received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognized as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writing has ... been of very great benefit to humanity".