JANUARY 21

Once censored in her own country, South African writer Nadine Gordimer has since found global vindication. Her 1991 Nobel Prize for Literature served nicely, as did her Booker Prize and countless other international honors. The latest of her nearly 30 books, The House Gun, is an eerily cerebral meditation on morality and violence in the aftermath of apartheid. The novel focuses on a white couple, liberal professionals both, whose grown son is charged with murder. Working with their son’s black counsel, they soon discover the limits of their liberalism. These characters provide Gordimer yet another opportunity to explore the twin themes of race and justice. Her earlier works (A Guest of Honor, The Late Bourgeois World)—did much the same, to the considerable embarrassment of the powers that were. Now a member of the African National Congress herself, Gordimer is one of the resolute protest writers who remained in South Africa through decades of turmoil. This outspoken denizen of post-colonial life will discuss her 50-year literary career with Washington Post Book World editor Marie Arana-Ward at 6 p.m. at the Department of Agriculture’s Jefferson Auditorium, 12th & Independence Ave. SW. $13. For reservations call (202) 357-3030. (Kelly Murphy Mason)