Review: ‘In Love’s Place’

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)