"The structural and historical roots of such disparities, and the social friction and significant emigration they feed, are succinctly analyzed amid generous excerpts from interviews and diaries." -- Publishers Weekly "Rare are the works which provide us with an insight into the past through the present. This is a book that deserves to be read.by all."  -- Examiner.com "Anyone interested in the progress of the 'new'  South Africa  20 years into its multiracial democracy need look no further than After Freedom --a powerful, well-researched, and thoroughly readable book. Newman and De Lannoy include hard demographic and economic data but it is their sustained and deeply personal interviews which prove both fascinating and discomforting. As in all democracies, including the United States, the pace of change is maddeningly slow for all too many.

" --Charlayne Hunter-Gault, journalist and author of New News Out of Africa "Written with verve and in an often lyrical style this book takes you into the depths of the everyday life of seven post-apartheid young South Africans. Set in the extraordinary urban experiment of contemporary Cape Town, Katherine Newman and Ariane de Lannoy succeed in bringing to vivid life the complexity of young South Africans seeking to make a life for themselves. Without being judgmental they surface and contextualize the intense experiences of personal failure and success through which young people in South Africa are going. This book will help you understand what it means to live in one of the world's major social laboratories." --Professor Crain Soudien, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at University of Cape Town, South Africa.