Sheila Gordon (January 22, 1927, in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; 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, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

, South Africa-2013) was an American writer who was born in South Africa. She wrote, among various other publications, ''

Waiting for the Rain ''Waiting for the Rain'' is a young adult novel by South African-born American writer Sheila Gordon, first published in 1987. It tells the story of two boys, one black and one white, growing up on a farm in South Africa during apartheid. As the ...

'', ''

The Middle of Somewhere ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', and '' Unfinished Business''. ''

'' 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 fo ...

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. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

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

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* 1927 births 20th-century American novelists American women novelists South African women novelists 2013 deaths 20th-century American women writers People from Cobble Hill, Brooklyn South African emigrants to the United States 21st-century American women {{US-novelist-1920s-stub