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Conversations with Myself

Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 14 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 14 weeks

Nelson Mandela is widely considered to be one of the most inspiring and iconic figures of our age. Now, after a lifetime of taking pen to paper to record thoughts and events, hardships and victories, he has bestowed his entire extant personal papers, which offer an unprecedented insight into his remarkable life.
A singular international publishing event, Conversations with Myself draws on Mandela's personal archive of never-before-seen materials to offer unique access to the private world of an incomparable world leader. Journals kept on the run during the anti-apartheid struggle of the early 1960s; diaries and draft letters written in Robben Island and other South African prisons during his twenty-seven years of incarceration; notebooks from the postapartheid transition; private recorded conversations; speeches and correspondence written during his presidency—a historic collection of documents archived at the Nelson Mandela Foundation is brought together into a sweeping narrative of great immediacy and stunning power. An intimate journey from Mandela's first stirrings of political consciousness to his galvanizing role on the world stage, Conversations with Myself illuminates a heroic life forged on the front lines of the struggle for freedom and justice.
While other books have recounted Mandela's life from the vantage of the present, Conversations with Myself allows, for the first time, unhindered insight into the human side of the icon.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 11, 2010
      The South African statesman and former political prisoner bares his mind and soul in this inspiring collection of writings and interviews. Culled from Mandela's letters, notebooks, taped conversations, prison diaries, calendars, and an unfinished autobiography, the material includes reminiscences of the antiapartheid movement, lessons in revolutionary theory gleaned from his guerrilla training, vignettes of prison life, seething protests to authorities, tender missives to loved ones, canny political strategizing and quiet philosophical reflections. The entries recall moments of high drama, days of dreary routine and interludes of random strangeness, including a prison screening of Revenge of the Nerds. Mandela registers his anger at the humiliations and hardships imposed on him by apartheid, and his anguish over his long separation from his family (officials even denied his requests to attend his mother's and son's funerals). But what comes through most strongly is his steadfast resolve—"the knowledge that in your day you did your duty and lived up to the expectations of your fellow man is in itself a reward"—and a shrewd, ebullient humanity that finds and embraces the good even in his prison guards. The result is a moving account of Mandela's struggle and a testament to his triumph. Photos.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Listening to this unique memoir is both interesting and frustrating, with interesting mostly winning. Composed of diaries, letters, personal notes, and speeches written by Mandela during his twenty-seven-year imprisonment by the South African apartheid regime, the writings reveal a man thinking himself into the great statesman he became. His intellect, humor, and drive shine from his words. However, those words are often hard to understand. Famed South African actor John Kani enunciates clearly and reads with feeling in a warm voice. Yet his strong accent--stronger, in fact, than Mandela's--can be hard for American listeners to understand. Also, the book's structure, jumping among wildly dissimilar documents, is difficult to follow in audio format. The listening effort makes this important book best for those interested in politics and social justice. A.C.S. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

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Languages

  • English

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