Irish historian and scholar Padraig O'Malley, currently a professor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, turns his attention to the struggle for freedom in South Africa in his latest book "Shades of Difference: Mac Maharaj and the Struggle for South Africa." This book is an exploration of South Africa's anti-apartheid movement as well as the story of a heretofore little-known liberator, Mac Maharaj, a South African freedom fighter of Indian descent. An agitator for four decades, Maharaj eventually spent twelve years in jail alongside Nelson Mandela, before serving in the negotiations which led to an independent South Africa in 1994. O'Malley's book includes an introduction by Mandela. ($32.95 / 672 pages / Viking)