My Traitor's Heart: A South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe, and His Conscience

Origin date: 1990
Updated: 20 May 2020

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Summary

A classic of literary nonfiction, My Traitor's Heart has been acclaimed as a masterpiece by readers around the world. Rian Malan is an Afrikaner, scion of a centuries-old clan and relative of the architect of apartheid, who fled South Africa after coming face-to-face with the atrocities and terrors of an undeclared civil war between the races. This book is the searing account of his return after eight years of uneasy exile. Armed with new insight and clarity, Malan explores apartheid's legacy of hatred and suffering, bearing witness to the extensive physical and emotional damage it has caused to generations of South Africans on both sides of the color line. Plumbing the darkest recesses of the white and black South African psyches, Malan ultimately finds his way toward the light of redemption and healing. My Traitor's Heart is an astonishing book -- beautiful, horrifying, profound, and impossible to put down.

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2016, July 18). My Traitor's Heart: A South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe, and His Conscience. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/R-0121510

South African History Online (2016) 'My Traitor's Heart: A South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe, and His Conscience', South African History Online, 18 July. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/R-0121510 (Accessed: 21 August 2026).

South African History Online, My Traitor's Heart: A South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe, and His Conscience [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/R-0121510, (accessed 21 August 2026).

"My Traitor's Heart: A South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe, and His Conscience." South African History Online, 18 July 2016, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/R-0121510. Accessed 21 Aug. 2026.

South African History Online. "My Traitor's Heart: A South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe, and His Conscience." South African History Online. July 18, 2016. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/R-0121510.