The Pickup

The Pickup is a 2001 romantic novel by South African author Nadine Gordimer. Set in both South Africa and an unnamed country, it follows the couple Julie Summers and Ibrahim ibn Musa (or “Abdu”), who are left with no choice but to move to Abdu’s homeland after his South African visa application is denied. Having both met and lived for years in South Africa, Julie and Abdu’s relationship is uprooted along with them. In Abdu’s North African country, the tides of identity are turned: Julie is now an immigrant, striving to adapt to their new culture. The novel features themes of identity, displacement, spirituality, xenophobia, and wealth inequality, but shows that love can survive alienation and anxiety in the globalizing world. The Pickup was awarded Best Book from Africa in the 2002 Commonwealth Writers’ Awards.

The Pickup begins in Johannesburg, South Africa. Julie Summers and Abdu meet by pure luck, on a day that is at first ordinary and slow. Julie’s car breaks down, and she makes her way to a mechanic shop, where she sees Abdu working. At first, Abdu intrigues her merely because he looks exotic. Julie, who is in her mid-twenties, comes from a white, affluent South African family descended from European colonists, and has yet to fully venture out into the world outside her community and the white bureaucratic corporation where she works. Julie asks Abdu on a date but doesn’t expect much to come of it.

When they meet, Abdu relates his desire to find a way to remain in South Africa. The country affords more social and economic mobility than his homeland. However, permanent residence in South Africa requires a visa authorization. Julie, feeling guilty that she has enjoyed a plethora of privileges, including education, wealth, and whiteness in a deeply racist country, empathizes with Abdu’s anxieties. Abdu asks Julie to take him to meet her family. She agrees reluctantly, for she sees her family as the epitome of white privilege in South Africa. Though Abdu and Julia recognize that they are quite different from each other, they start to fall in love.



The couple’s honeymoon period is interrupted when Abdu receives the news that he is being deported. This brings Julie and Abdu to a difficult conversation about whether or not they want to be with each other. Abdu’s imminent deportation forces the additional question of whether to get married—something they didn’t imagine they would have to figure out so soon. They both agree that the legal privileges afforded by marriage are crucial for them to remain with each other. Abdu proposes to Julie, and she happily accepts. Because it is too hard for Abdu to get a visa, they move to his arid, North African hometown.

This time, it is Julie’s turn to meet Abdu’s family. His family receives her with love and happiness. Julie is heartened to see, in her new family, a love for culture, community, and tolerance that she always yearned to have growing up. She studies the Qur’an and begins to learn Arabic. As she adapts to her new context, she also reaches out to her estranged mother, finding that she has remarried and now lives in the United States. At the end of the novel, realizing that he strongly values accumulating international experience, Abdu decides to move to a new country to find work. Julie decides to remain in Abdu’s homeland, teaching English in their town. Abdu and Julie remain happily married; in fact, their relationship grows stronger than ever. The Pickup is a testament to the fact that love can not only survive, but flourish, in a globalizing world.