Almayer's Folly: A Story of an Eastern River, Paperback

Almayer's Folly, Joseph Conrad's first novel, is a tale of personal tragedy as well as a broader meditation on the evils of colonialism. Set in the lush jungle of Borneo in the late 1800s, it tells of the Dutch merchant Kaspar Almayer, whose dreams of riches for his beloved daughter, Nina, collapse under the weight of his own greed and prejudice. Nadine Gordimer writes in her Introduction, "Conrad's writing is lifelong questioning . . . What was 'Almayer's Folly'? The pretentious house never lived in? His obsession with gold? His obsessive love for his daughter, whose progenitors, the Malay race, he despised? All three?" Conrad established in Almayer's Folly the themes of betrayal, isolation, and colonialism that he would explore throughout the rest of his life and work.

Nadine Gordimer, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1991, has written numerous works set in her South African homeland, including The Conservationist, Burger's Daughter, and July's People. Her most recent novel is The Pickup.