The first free elections in South Africa's history were held in 1994. Within a year legislation was drafted to create a Truth and Reconcilliation Commission to establish a picture of the gross human rights violations committed between 1960 and 1993. It was to seek the truth and make it known to the public and to prevent these brutal events ever happening again. From 1996 and over the following two years South Africans were exposed almost daily to revelations about their traumatic past. Antije Krog's full account of the Commission's work using the testimonies of the oppressed and oppressors alike is a harrowing and haunting book in which the voices of ordinary people shape the course of history.

WINNER OF SOUTH AFRICA'SSUNDAY TIMESALAN PATON AWARD

Antjie Krog was born in 1952 in Kroonstad, a town in the Free State province of South Africa. She has published eight volumes of poetry, several of which have been translated into European languages and have won international prizes.

Reporting as Antjie Samuel, the author and her SABC radio team received the Pringle Award for excellence in journalism for reporting on the Truth and Reconcilliation Commission. Krog also won the Foreign Correspondents' Award for outstanding journalism for her articles on the Truth Commission. She went on to become parliamentary editor for SABC radio in 1997 and has since been appointed as an Extraordinary Professor in the Arts Faculty at the University of the Western Cape.

Antjie Krog is married and is the mother of four children.