South Africa & apartheid Book

Excellent account of events surrounding the trial that sentenced Mandela to, eventually, 27 years in prison. The book focuses on specifically three white, communist, families, some of which managed to flee in time before their compatriots were tried in the Rivonia trials, some of which were in the dock with Mandela.
Besides how impressively those chased, fled or convicted stuck to their ideals and were willing to fight and die for them, the book also shows the disturbing extent to which South Africa descended into a horrid police state, starting shortly after the Second World War and only ending in the late 80s, when de Klerk sought an end to minority rule.