A Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, Fiction
A Publishers Lunch “Emerging Voice”
A New York Post "Must-Read" book
"This is fiction that illuminates shifting allegiances and power struggles during a dark time and place in recent history. A riveting thriller with a solid historical base." — Booklist, starred review
"The Mandela Plot is as suspenseful as a thriller, and the truest kind of Jewish family story—suffused with love and secrets both. It'salso a masterful, terrifying portrait of a nation, at once bewitching and brutal, whose years on the edge have so much to teach America, and the world, today. You won't be able to put this book down." — Boris Fishman, author of A Replacement Life and Don’t Let My Baby Do Rodeo
“Propulsive, bare-boned, and riveting, The Mandela Plot shows how competing loyalties to family, truth, and history can tear a person—and a country—apart. Kenneth Bonert’s unvarnished characters are fierce and surprising—there are no seat belts on this ride.” — Rachel Kadish, author of The Weight of Ink
“Chaim Potok meets Leon Uris: a solid . . . portrait of violence and renewal.” — Kirkus Reviews
"It’s the late 1980s in South Africa, where an awkward boy named Martin struggles to find a place at an elite private school in Johannesburg. A beautiful American activist comes to live with Martin at his family home, and she makes him see his own chaotic, changing country through a new lens." — New York Post