The Conservationist

Nadine Gordimer

From Shelf: The Booker Prize 1974 Shortlist

Nadine Gordimer's Booker Prize-winning story of the forces and relationships seething in the South Africa of the day

Mehring is rich. He has all the privileges and possessions that South Africa has to offer, but his possessions refuse to remain objects. His wife, son and mistress leave him; his foreman and workers become increasingly indifferent to his stewardship; even the land rises up, as drought, then flood, destroy his farm. As the upheaval in Mehring's world increasingly resembles that in the country as a whole, it becomes clear that only a seismic shift in ideas and concrete action can avert annihilation.