Playing the Enemy Audiobook By John Carlin cover art

Playing the Enemy

 Preview
Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Playing the Enemy

By: John Carlin
Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.00

Buy for $20.00

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

 Ellis Park in Johannesburg, 24 June 1995. The Springboks versus The All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup final. Nelson Mandela steps onto the pitch wearing a Springboks shirt and, before a global audience of millions, a new country is born. This book tells the incredible story of Mandela's journey to that moment.

As the day of the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup dawned, and the Springboks faced the All Blacks, more was at stake than a sporting trophy. When Nelson Mandela appeared wearing a Springboks jersey and led the all-white Afrikaner-dominated team in singing South Africa's new national anthem, he conquered white South Africa.

Playing the Enemy tells the extraordinary human story of how that moment became possible. It shows how a sport, once the preserve of South Africa's Afrikaans-speaking minority, came to unify the new rainbow nation, and tells of how - just occasionally - something as simple as a game really can help people to rise above themselves and see beyond their differences.

©2008 John Carlin (P)2009 WF Howes Ltd 20th Century Africa Modern Rugby Soccer
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup
All stars
Most relevant  
Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika

This book!!! This book!!

I'm absolutely awestruck and speechless.

I picked it up rather unsuspectingly for a reading challenge prompt: read a book set in South Africa. I had a feeling I’d go with non-fiction, but I had no idea I’d be striking gold. Five minutes into the audiobook, I was hooked—and I stayed hooked all the way through to the closing speech.

I’ve always enjoyed non-fiction, especially history, but only a few books have truly taken up permanent space in my heart—books that make me elated, teary, and deeply moved.

It is that best of "docu-drama" that makes you feel that you are right there in the midst of all with the people the story is about, totally immersed in the narrative.

You don't need to know anything much about rugby (like I don't) or care for sports in general (like I don't), because while it is a vital element of the book, it is not what ultimately the book is about.
It is about one man and many people: about fear, hatred, cruelty, suffering, heartbreak, about forgiveness (and boy, how much forgiveness was needed), about looking past ideologies and seeing human beings, about inhuman efforts to do so, about forging all the fear and hatred into something so much more.

Very good narration by Saul Reichlin.

If you're into nonfiction that moves you, teaches you, and stays with you long after you finish—this is one of those reads. I can’t recommend it enough.

Simply Awesome

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.