In her ambitious third novel Wicomb explores South Africa's history through a woman's attempt
to answer questions surrounding her past (The New Yorker). Set in a beautifully rendered 1990s
Cape Town Windham Campbell Prize winner Zoë Wicomb's celebrated novel revolves around Marion
Campbell who runs a travel agency but hates traveling and who in post-apartheid society
must negotiate the complexities of a knotty relationship with Brenda her first black employee.
As Alison McCulloch noted in the New York Times Wicomb deftly explores the ghastly soup of
racism in all its unglory-denial tradition habit stupidity fear-and manages to do so
without moralizing or becoming formulaic. Caught in the narrow world of private interests and
self-advancement Marion eschews national politics until the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission throws up information that brings into question not only her family's past but her
identity and her rightful place in contemporary South African society. Stylistically nuanced
and psychologically astute Playing in the Light is as powerful in its depiction of Marion's
personal journey as it is in its depiction of South Africa's bizarre brutal history (Kirkus
Reviews starred review). Post-apartheid South Africa is indeed a new world . . . With this
novel Wicomb proves a keen guide. -The New York Times Delectable . . . Wicomb's prose is as
delightful and satisfying in its culmination as watching the sun set over the Atlantic Ocean.
-The Christian Science Monitor [A] thoughtful poetic novel. -The Times (London)
