Author: Etienne

Etienne van Heerden’s new novel, Klimtol, will be published by Tafelberg Publishers at the end of September 2013. Cover photograph by Cape Town photographer Antonia Steyn.

Michiel Heyns reviews In Love’s Place in the Sunday Times.

“It has been said that a novelist can achieve the universal only through an intimate knowledge of the particular, and Van Heerden’s distinction lies in his supreme command of the particular, the local, the national, which he can then, with no sense of strain, extend to the larger themes relating his novels to an international context.

“The inventiveness of his language presents a daunting challenge to a translator, a challenge that Leon de Kock’s agile translation readily meets. IN LOVE’S PLACE, through this translation, becomes a valuable addition to South African literature in English.” – Michiel Heyns, Sunday Times (SA)

Etienne van Heerden, Michiel Heyns and Mervyn Sloman at the launch of Van Heerden’s novel In Love’s Place, Book Lounge, Cape Town.

In Love’s Place joins its Penguin siblings: Ancestral Voices, Leap
Year and 30 Nights in Amsterdam.

Read the first chapter of Etienne van Heerden’s novel In Love’s Place here.

“The car’s sitting on his backside. The light bores into Christian’s rear-view mirror, splashing onto his face. He puts his foot down, pushing the small BMW to its limit, but the rat-car stays right there, on his bumper. Suddenly, with the assurance of practice, the car swerves into the lane for oncoming traffic and pulls into position next to Christian. He feels panic pounding in his chest. The car pulls slightly ahead of the BMW, but doesn’t swerve into the space in front of Christian as an overtaking car would. It keeps on racing ahead in the wrong lane. On the back window, in letters that are ornamental and provocative, he reads: Don’t fuck with me.

“The car pulls back next to Christian again so that the two vehicles ride next to each other. The tinted window rolls down. In the passenger seat the young man is wearing dark glasses and a red bandana around his forehead. From his sleeveless top a lean and muscular upper arm emerges, on which a dragon, tattooed across the bulge of the deltoid, rears up on hindlegs.

“Suddenly a revolver appears. Black, light blinking against it. The BMW’s front windscreen shatters. Flecks of glass fly against his face, flowing past his throat. Bright red crystals fanning out in the glow of brake lights. It’s as if he’s just driven into a swarm of bees.”

The Eastern Cape launch of Etienne van Heerden’s novel In Love’s Place will take place on 10 August 2013 at the 2013 Schreiner Karoo Writer’s Festival in Cradock. The novel was translated into English by University of Stellenbosh Professor of English Leon de Kock.

Susan Smith reviews Etienne van Heerden’s Gifkaroo/Poison Karoo.

“Of hierdie teks lewens, perspektiewe en beleid sal verander, sal die tyd leer. Of dit die bedoelde lesers sal bereik, is onseker. Wat seker is, is dat Gifkaroo jou nie onaangeraak laat nie. Miskien sal daar later teruggekyk word na hierdie teks as die moment in die Suid-Afrikaanse letterkunde wat bedoel was om uitdagings in die oë te kyk.”

(Photos: Imke van Heerden)

Etienne van Heerden’s upcoming novel, Klimtol (Yo-yo in English), has been accepted for publication in Dutch in 2014 (Podium Publishers, Amsterdam, Netherlands). The Afrikaans edition will be published by Tafelberg Publishers in October 2013. It is a novel about play. Here he throws a few tricks in Amsterdam.