Down Second Avenue

**Es’kia Mphahlele’s seminal memoir of life in apartheid South

Africa—available for the first time in Penguin Classics**

Nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1969, Es’kia Mphahlele is considered the Dean

of African Letters and the father of black South African writing. _Down Second

Avenue_ is a landmark book that describes Mphahlele’s experience growing up in

segregated South Africa. Vivid, graceful, and unapologetic, it details a daily

life of severe poverty and brutal police surveillance under the subjugation of

an apartheid regime. Banned in South Africa after its original 1959

publication for its protest against apartheid, _Down Second Avenue_ is a

foundational work of literature that continues to inspire activists today.