Summary

“Some Are Born to Sweet Delight” by Nadine Gordimer starts with a family renting out a room to a young foreign man who is a Muslim. The man is tidy and respectful towards the family and their seventeen-year-old daughter, Vera. 

One night, Vera goes to the discotheque and gets drunk. She returns home feeling sick and encounters the foreign man in the kitchen. Since Vera thinks the man does not drink due to his religious beliefs, she feels embarrassed to be seen drunk, so she asks him to leave. However, the man helps Vera and does not mention the incident to the family. Vera feels she can no longer ignore him and finds out that his name is Rad.

One day, Vera is preparing to go out to the pub, but she sees Rad reading in the garden. The man apologises for bringing out a chair from the house, but Vera promises not to tell her mother, returning a favour for keeping her secret. She begins a conversation with him and feels like she cannot let him know that she...