Pulitzer Prize General Non Fiction Winner

Move Your Shadow

by Joseph Lelyveld

Summary

A reporter's portrait of South Africa under Apartheid, drawn from years of dispatches and return visits that capture the regime's bureaucratic cruelty and the daily indignities it imposed on Black South Africans. Lelyveld pairs scenes of township life and labor migration with interviews across the racial divide, exposing the psychological costs borne by oppressors and oppressed alike. The book's title—a phrase a white golfer uses to order his Black caddy—encapsulates the casual contempt he documents throughout.

Historical Context & Significance

A rare tie for 1986. Lelyveld's title refers to a phrase from a golf caddy, illustrating the casual but deep-seated racism of the era.