In God’s Waiting Room, Golomski takes readers on an intimate, thought-provoking journey through a South African nursing home, where older white residents and the younger Black nurses who care for them navigate a complex web of history, memory, and reconciliation.
Told through a one-day, room-by-room tour, this immersive account reveals how ageism, sexism, and racism shape not just health and caregiving but also the fragile spaces where care and prejudice collide. Through the lives of seven individuals, Golomski uncovers moments of grace, survival, and reckoning as they confront apartheid’s lingering shadows.
Based on years of deep ethnographic research, this book offers a rare and moving look at the intersections of personal and national history, making it essential reading for those interested in South Africa’s past, the ethics of care, and the human capacity for reconciliation.
About the author:
Casey Golomski is an associate professor of anthropology and women and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. He is the author of Funeral Culture: AIDS, Work, and Cultural Change in an African Kingdom.
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