Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780143115724)

Read the book that inspired the Academy Award and Golden Globe winning 2009 film INVICTUS featuring Morgan Freeman and Matt Daymon, directed by Clint Eastwood.

Beginning in a jail cell and ending in a rugby tournament- the true story of how the most inspiring charm offensive in history brought South Africa together. After being released from prison and winning South Africa's first free election, Nelson Mandela presided over a country still deeply divided by fifty years of apartheid. His plan was ambitious if not far-fetched: use the national rugby team, the Springboks-long an embodiment of white-supremacist rule-to embody and engage a new South Africa as they prepared to host the 1995 World Cup. The string of wins that followed not only defied the odds, but capped Mandela's miraculous effort to bring South Africans together again in a hard-won, enduring bond.

Author: John Carlin
ISBN-10: 0143115723
ISBN-13: 9780143115724
Publisher: Penguin Books
Language: English
Published: 07/01/2009
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.59lbs
Size: 8.46h x 5.34w x 0.75d

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 08/23/2009 pg. 20