nadine gordimer, the south african writer and political activist, was a woman deeply disturbed by the racial issues and inequalities prevalent in her country which moved her to create a body of work dealing with the issues that permeated the very fabric of the south african society. Born to white parents in a small mining town near johannesburg, she witnessed the racial discrimination and atrocities the black population was subjected to by the whites. Even though she never had a natural inclination towards politics, living in south africa made her interested in the subject as it was something that touched every south african in their daily life. Gordimer loved to write from a young age and published her first book when she was just 15! she primarily wrote short stories during her early years as a writer before moving on to novels. Her mother had always been sympathetic towards the blacks who were made to bear unthinkable atrocities and nadine inherited her compassion. The sharpeville massacre especially provoked her conscience and she became an anti-apartheid social activist campaigning for the rights of the blacks. Her literary works on racism won her a nobel prize for literature in 1991.