From Publishers Weekly "In a few days I am to die，" writes the narrator at the start of this novel about a young， black South African man condemned to death for allegedly raping a white woman. He wonders if he would be in the prison cell if he had never spotted the woman sunbathing on the beach. Instead， he muses， he might have gone on to become "the first truly great African writer my country has ever produced." The author， a black who has been banished from his native South Africa， may not yet be a "great" writer， but his words flow smoothly over subject matter that is often painful. As the narrator tells the story of his childhood in a Zulu household， of his first encounter with the white sunbather and of the incident that resulted in the verdict against him， the reader becomes uncomfortably aware of the ugly political and racial ramifications of the situation. Although Nkosi is a talented writer， this work is to be read more for the strength of its message than for the power of its prose. This is a short， but by no means a small， novel. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information， Inc. From Library Journal From his cell in Durban， South Africa， the black narrator of this short， powerful novel can see mating birds "clinging to each other joyfully in the bright air as though for dear life." But he is condemned to die: condemned for mating with a white woman. On her accusation， he has been found guilty of rape; by his account they were "mating birds，" drawn together across racial barriers by irrepressible sexual desire. While the nature of their encounter remains ambiguous， the squalid evils of apartheid are rendered with the utmost clarity. Nkosi， an exiled South African， has a fine ear for dialogue and an unusual economy of expression. Recommended for black studies and fiction collections. Peter Sabor， English Dept.， Queen's Univ.， Kingston， OntarioCopyright 1986 Reed Business Information， Inc. See all Editorial Reviews