Young Mandela

"David James Smith's Young Mandela takes up the tale of Mandela's rise within the A.N.C.in gripping fashion...and offers a fresh portrait of this modern-day saint...Here, you think, is the man."—J.M. Ledgard, New York Times Book Review

"Young Mandela presents a vivid picture of South Africa under apartheid...Mandela's flaws make him more fascinating, and his movement's ambiguities and conflicts map the crooked, hard-fought road that every freedom struggle must travel."—Kate Tuttle, Boston Globe

"Young Mandela provides a fascinating take on the South African freedom fighter's rise to power, including his fraught relationship with his children and his courtship of Winnie."—Vogue

"Smith succeeds in bringing Nelson Mandela to life, wading in where other biographers have feared to tread to provide much new information and genuine insight."—Stephen Robinson, Sunday Times

"Absorbing...Smith's account performs the great service of making the hero more fully human."—Joshua Hammer, New Republic

"Illuminating...Mandela is portrayed as a flawed, complex man...but it is this rounded view of the man that gives the book its humanity."—Peter Howard, Newark Star-Ledger