Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 Waiting at the Heart of Colonial Time Regimes -- Chapter 2 Projects and Promissory Notes: The Waiting Rooms of V. S. Naipaul and Nadine Gordimer -- Chapter 3 Marooned Time: Disruptive Waiting and Idleness -- Chapter 4 Gendered Timescapes of Waiting: Patience and Urgency in Novels of Disillusionment -- Chapter 5 'Strategic Waiting' and Reconciliation in the Aftermath of Conflict -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index