Reader recommendations: 'A Change of Tongue' by Antjie Krog

Morgan Grayce Willow of Minneapolis writes:

I'm reading "A Change of Tongue," by South African journalist and poet Antjie Krog. Best known to American readers for "Country of My Skull," which chronicles her coverage of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the South African Broadcasting Corp., Krog has been described as the Pablo Neruda of Afrikaans. The anti-apartheid poem that got her in trouble as a schoolgirl is available in her own English translation in the collection "Down to My Last Skin."

"A Change of Tongue" treats the new South Africa in true creative nonfiction fashion. Krog interweaves reportage with memoir and sets off divisions in the text with lyrical prose that puts the reader smack in the middle of the veld. Such a layering of texts seems appropriate for such a complex moment in human history.