When first published 20 years ago, Kaffir Boy changed the way the West understood South Africa. As powerful today as when it was first written, Mathabane's remarkable story of life under apartheid is told with brutal honesty and gives the reader a rare glimpse, behind the protests and boycotts, of the daily fear and hunger which was so devastating to the soul. Often compared to Richard Wright's Black Boy, Kaffir Boy is a memoir of growing up in a world where poverty, hopelessness and desperation are constant companions.