Category: Latest

Margaret von Klemperer reviews In Love’s Place in The Witness

“There are moments when In Love’s Place has the pace of a thriller, but it is much more than that. In its often funny and often frightening world, which is a skewed version of the one we think we know, it is a profound look at damaged and dislocated people in a damaged society, where human trafficking and drugs take their toll, where the past continues to haunt the present and where no one can be certain where they really belong.”
– Margaret von Klemperer, The Witness

Fiona Snyckers reviews In Love’s Place in the Times Live

“The layers of plot overlap one another as tightly as artichoke leaves. But in the hands of a master plotter, they never get tangled or confused. In Love’s Place is, above all, an engrossing read. As you begin to sense the strands that link the characters together, you will turn the pages faster to find out how their destinies intersect.” – Fiona Snyckers, Times Live

Etienne van Heerden’s latest novel, Klimtol, will be launched soon. Tafelberg Publishers commissioned the merchandise.

With researchers and student leaders at the War Memorial, Bloemfontein, after a workshop on “Contemporary German and Afrikaner Cultural Responses to Issues of Trauma, Reconciliation and Reparation”, funded by the British Academy. This followed on Etienne van Heerden’s presentation on The Politics of Memory, a Personal Narrative at Prof. Gobodo-Madikizela’s Research Centre on Trauma, Forgiveness and Reconciliation the previous day. The presentation formed part of the University of the Free State’s Dialogue between Science and Society (DbSS) series. From left to right, with students: Prof André Wessels, Senior Professor and Chair, Department of History, UFS, Prof Stuart Taberner, Professor of Contemporary German Literature, Culture and Society (University of Leeds), Dr Matthew Boswell (University of Leeds), Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Senior Research Professor, UFS, Dr Cilliers van den Berg, School of Languages and Literatures, UFS, Mr Wilhelm Verwoerd, University of Stellenbosch, Dr Johann Rossouw, Department of Philosophy, UFS, Prof Etienne van Heerden, Hofmeyr Professor, School of Languages and Literatures, University of Cape Town, Mr Gerald Makamba (workshop co-ordinator) and Dr Helen Finsch, University of Leeds.

 

Etienne van Heerden interviewed on his writing by Nancy Richards in the radio programme SAfm 104-107 Literature – Sunday 15th September 2013 (13h10 – 13h40).

Click here for an enlargement of the review by Ken Barris.

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)