The Man Who Walked Out Free

On February 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela stepped through the gates of Victor Verster Prison near Paarl, South Africa, his fist raised, his wife Winnie's hand in his. He was seventy-one years old. Twenty-seven years of his life had been spent behind bars — eighteen of them breaking limestone on Robben Island, where the glare permanently damaged his eyesight. The apartheid regime had taken his youth, his family, and nearly three decades of freedom.…