South Africa is not an easy place in which to live. Soaring crime levels, xenophobia, rampant corruption and the rise to power of the controversial Jacob Zuma all signal the end of the dream years. A new personal resilience is needed to cope with a new political uncertainty. Load Shedding is a collection of non-fiction stories by some of South Africa's pre-eminent authors, journalists and commentators, including Imraan Coovadia, Achille Mbembe, Deborah Posel and Karina Magdalena Szczurek, that reveal how we live under pressure. Written during the nation's period of electricity blackouts, these personal accounts shine new light on our contemporary South African world.