Social anthropologist and Stellenbosch University academic Prof Steven Robins' memoir, Letters of Stone, has been nominated as one of five books to make the Sunday Times shortlist for the Alan Paton Award for non-fiction for 2017. The award is presented in association with Porcupine Ridge.

Through Letters of Stone, Robins, who lecturers in the Sociology and Social Anthropology Department in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, chronicles his family's desperate attempt to escape Nazi Germany and the concentration camps which led to the deaths of millions of Jews. Sparked by a single photograph of his grandmother, Cecilie, and his aunts, Edith and Hildegard, displayed in his family home, he provides a deeply personal and painful reflection of the true horror and extent of the Nazis' racial policies against Jews. Read the full story about Robins' memoir here.

"I am really pleased and honoured to be shortlisted. Writing such a personal book was very important for me and for my wider family. Being recognised by the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award for the book is a wonderful bonus," said Robins.

The winner of the award will be announced on Saturday, 24 June, and will receive a R100 000 prize.

According to a statement by Pippa Green, Chairwoman of the judging panel, the initial long list, which consisted of 26 books, included "a number of memoirs, biographies and autobiographies, which tell the stories of intimate family relationships against a backdrop of the huge historical forces that have swept the last century". The other members of the judging panel include Prof Tinyiko Maluleke, an adviser to the principal and vice-chancellor at the University of Pretoria and an extraordinary professor at the University of South Africa; and Judge Johann Kriegler, a former Constitutional Court judge.

This year marks the 28th year that the Alan Paton Award will be bestowed on a book that presents "the illumination of truthfulness, especially those forms of it that are new, delicate, unfashionable and fly in the face of power", and that demonstrates "compassion, elegance of writing, and intellectual and moral integrity" read the statement released by the Sunday Times.

"The shortlist reflects a diverse range of subjects and historical eras: from human origins to the Marikana of just three years ago, from CapeTown today to wartime Berlin," said the Sunday Times.

The four other books that made the short list are Under Nelson Mandela Boulevard: Life Among the Stowaways by Sean Christie, Darwin's Hunch: Science, Race, and the Search for Human Origins by Christa Kuljian, Murder at Small Koppie: The Real Story of The Marikana Massacre by Greg Marinovich, and My Own Liberator by Dikgang Moseneke.

"These books raise critical questions about our past, present and future," says Green. "The big question being asked is, who are we?"

Photo: Prof Steven Robins with his memoir, Letters of Stone, that has been shortlisted for the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award. (Lauren E.H. Muller)