Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. The difference between fiction and

nonfiction is that with nonfiction, there's not really an ending. Like, yeah, you can decide when to

stop telling a story, but as long as the world keeps spinning, the story isn't really over.

I know that sounds like a silly, like, jack handy type fake deep thought,

but it's the central point of today's book. It's called The Inheritors by journalist Eve Fairbanks,

and it's about South Africa and how it's tempting to see the end of apartheid and the end of

white rule over the country and the election of Nelson Mandela as some neat and tidy

bow on this story. But that's not how life works. And apartheid continues to have lasting and

complex impacts on South Africans of all races. And it's led to poverty and disillusionment.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

It's been 28 years since apartheid ended in South Africa and the celebrated election of Nelson Mandela,

but the country's people are still wrestling with the after effects of white minority rule.

A new book details how deeply decades of institutionalized racism etched itself into the psyches of South Africans.

It's called The Inheritors.

It's by journalist E. Fairbanks, a white woman who grew up in Virginia, but spent years in South Africa getting

to know the people whose stories are told in the book. I did ask her if she had any apprehension

about writing about the lives of Black South Africans and white Afrikaners. I absolutely thought

...