Occasion for Loving is a 1963 novel by South African author Nadine Gordimer.

[2] The novel focuses on a forbidden romantic relationship during apartheid between a woman in the wealthy white elite in South Africa and an African artist.

[2] Irving Malon, in The Kenyon Review, described this conflict as one of the central themes: "Love and politics — private feelings and public restrictions — clash and break Miss Gordimer's characters".

[3] A Nobel Prize essay described the novel as teaching that "apartheid cannot be reformed by pious words.

"[2] The novel was initially published by Viking Press, and included two epigraphs, one from Boris Pasternak and one from Thomas Mann.