Born in South Africa in 1929, Dan Jacobson writes strikingly about his homeland. A pioneer in South African fiction, he has won praise for his work on this and other subjects from critics and a certain amount of popularity with the public in both Britain and America. His fiction includes nine novels, one a Literary Guild selection, and six volumes of short stories. He has received the Somerset Maugham Award for fiction, the John Llewelyn Rhys Memorial Prize, and the Jewish Chronicle / H. H. Wingate award. He has also twice been a creative writing fellow at American universities. With his winning realistic style he portrays not only natural settings but also intriguing characters, social tensions, and human relationships with equal clarity and insight.

Jacobson is the youngest son of Jewish immigrants,Hyman Michael and Liebe Melamed Jacobson, to Kimberly, a small South African town where he grew up. After...