Sheila Gordon (January 22, 1927, in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

, South Africa-2013) was an American writer who was born in South Africa. She wrote, among various other publications, '' Waiting for the Rain'', '' The Middle of Somewhere'', and '' Unfinished Business''. '' Waiting for the Rain'' tells the story of two boys growing up on a

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

in South Africa during the

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

era. The friendship between the two boys dissipates as they grow older because one of them, who is black, seeks political equality, while the other boy, who is white, wants everything to stay the same. Sheila lived in Cobble Hill, a small neighborhood in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

for over fifty years. She died on May 10, 2013, at the age of 86. Her husband of over 60 years, Harley Gordon, died three months later on August 8, 2013. They were survived by their three children and five grandchildren.

External links

Interview
* 1927 births 20th-century American novelists American women novelists South African women novelists 2013 deaths