From the blurb for UK writer – and BBC 6 involvee – Philip Wilding’s debut novel, Cross Country Murder Song: “On a journey from the Jersey Shore to the Pacific Ocean, the driver crosses an America twisted beyond all recognition, as if in a fevered dream… On and off the road, we glimpse the lives of people who are touched by the driver in one way or another – a porn star who can no longer perform; a widower looking for love; two parents who return day after day to the spot where their son was killed.”
Here’s the first chapter:
Tell me about the box they kept you in, he said.
I remember the darkness, he replied, and the smell of the wood and the dust. When they first put me in there I sneezed and my sneezing made a dog bark and then someone shouted shut up, but I didn’t know if they were shouting at me or at the dog.
He glanced up at the therapist seated just behind him then wriggled so that he was sitting up. He still felt uncomfortable lying on his back for too long. He understood that it was meant to relax him, but it put him on edge. He looked at the blue expanse of sky through the large window at the end of the office, imagined being in an airy square somewhere with the breeze prickling his skin and exhaled deeply and slowly to stave off the panic as he’d been shown.
The therapist was looking out the same window, his pencil flat on his notepad. Are you okay? he asked. We don’t have to talk about the box if you don’t want to.
Alert! The Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) had its annual multilingualism awards banquet late last month, and – well, let’s be honest here, perhaps Your Correspondent is a bit jaded, but the whole thing just seems a little bit tawdry, right down to the press release:
There were ululations and chanting when PanSALB bestowed the Chairman’s Lifetime Award on former State President, Dr Nelson Mandela.
The announcement was made during a star-studded, glittering and ostentatious PanSALB Multilingualism Awards, held at the Sandton Convention Centre on Saturday, 20 February 2010.
“Ostentatious” indeed. (Where are we, back at the NLNG Grant Awards Night?) One of Madiba’s granddaughters accepted the gong on his behalf. The list of the other winners – which goes on a bit, and sees both individuals and institutions in the mix – includes Deon Meyer, who won the Afrikaans category (there’s one award per official language, it would seem – but on the other hand there’s no mention of English, Zulu, Ndebele, Sepedi, Siswati or Xitsonga in the press release, so who knows), receiving R10 000 courtesy Microsoft. Other individual winners received the same amount:
In the language, written and oral literature category the winner for Afrikaans is Deon Meyer, top-selling South African crime thriller author, whose books have been translated into 20 languages. The runners-up are André Brink and Antjie Krog.
In Setswana the winner is the Reverend Dietrich Mascher and the runner-up Thapelo Moraka.
In isiXhosa the joint winners are Professors Peter Mtuze and Mncedisi Jordan. Mtuze was head of African Languages at the University of Rhodes until 2000 and advisor to the African Languages Association.
In Tshivenda the winner is NAPS Publishers and the runners-up are Domina Napoleon Munzhelele and Konanani Muebi.
The winner for Sesotho is playright Thapelo Moraka and the runners-up are Paul Katiso Nkhoesa and Kabelo Duncan Kgatea.
In South African sign language the winner is Francois Deysel of the Deaf Federation of South Africa and the runners-up Philemon Akash and the Sign Language Department.
In Khoi, Nama and San languages the winner is the Khwedam Language Committee and the runner-up Gerhardus Damarah.
‘n Mens sal nie sommer sport en literatuur saamvoeg nie, maar dit is presies wat die organiseerders van die Woordfees beplan om vanjaar te doen – en wat hulle aanbied lyk beslis belowend!
Met die sokker-wêreldbeker om die draai is dié fees, wat van 1-7 Maart in Stellenbosch gehou word, se tema vanjaar “baljaar”. Oudergewoonte gaan die woord in alle sfere gevier word. Dit sluit in beprekinge, debatte, toneelstukke, musiekvertonings, kuns en kos. Vanjaar word daar egter ook gekyk na die rol van die woord in sport.
Só word daar in diskoers met Freek Robinson vanjaar gevra: “Wie se sokker-wêreldbeker is dit?” en “Gaan die wêreldbeker kool ekonomies die sous werd wees?” Supersport bied “Woordfiks” aan, waar sportuitsaaiers se gebruik van woorde onder die loep kom. Die iArt Gallery en David Krut Publishing stel ook die offisiële plakkaat van die 2010 Sokker-wêreldbeker ten toon.
Woorde en sport word vermeng en so ook woorde en ander genres. In “Oopmond” kom digters soos Danie Marais (Al is die maan ‘n misverstand), Jo Prins en Ronel Nel (En die Here het foto’s geneem oor Vanderbijlpark) byvoorbeeld teen musikante van Klopjag en DKW te staan in ‘n “bekgeveg met tunes” (4 Maart om 20:15 in die Fismer-saal teen R40). Dana Snyman (Op die toneel) en Klopjag span saam om die gehoor op ‘n reis te neem in “Baby as ek verby ry…” (5 Maart om 20:15 in die Fismer-saal teen R80) en Laurinda Hofmeyr span met akteurs saam om die werk en lewe van Breyten Breytenbach (Oorblyfsel/Voice Over) in woord en lied uit te beeld. (6 Maart 17:30 en 7 Maart 18:00 in die Japie Krige-saal teen R80). Dit is ter viering van Breytenbach se 70ste verjaarsdag.
Nog ‘n “groot gees”, Tannie Evita Bezuidenhout, is ‘n spesiale gas by vanjaar se Woordfees. Sy kom stel haar nuwe kookboek, Kossie Sikelela, bekend (2 Maart om 15:00 in die HB Thom Teater – Gratis) en sy is ook op die verhoog te sien in “‘n Koeksister vir Zuma” (2 Maart om 20:15 en 4 Maart om 20:15 in die HB Thom Teater teen R100).
Talle boeke wat die afgelope jaar verskyn het, sal deur hul skrywers bespreek word:
Naweek deur Toast Coetzer (6 Maart om 09:30 in die kykNET-Boektent teen R30)
Immergroen deur Dave Pepler (5 Maart om 10:00 in die Erfurthuis – Gratis)
Apostroof deur Fanie Olivier (3 Maart om 18:00 in die Erfurthuis teen R40)
Dit is ook nie net Afrikaanse of Suid-Afrikaanse skrywers wat aan die woord is nie. Soos gewoonlik word Nederlandse skrywers, toneelspelers en kunstenaars in die fees betrek, veral by die Neerlandistiekdag (6 Maart, 09:00-14:00 in Lokaal 693 in die Lettere gebou teen R50) en die Soete Groete-ete (5 Maart om 19:00 by Stellenrust teen R170).
Die Zimbabwese skrywer Shimmer Chinodya kom ook oor sy boeke gesels (5 Maart om 17:00 in die kykNET-Boektent teen R30).
Nuwe skrywers word nie afgeskeep nie. Nuwe stemme 4, ‘n bundel propvol werke van nuwe digters word by die fees bekendgestel (5 Maart om 18:00 by die Erfurthuis – Gratis).
‘n Splinternuwe toneelstuk, Draadwerk, die wenner van die Nagtegaal Teksprys, word vir die eerste keer by die Woordfees opgevoer (6 Maart om 20:15 en 7 Maart om 18:00 in die HB Thom Teater teen R80). Willem Anker se nuwe toneelstuk, Skrapnel, kan ook nie gemis word nie (4 Maart om 18:00 en 6 Maart om
09:30 in die HB Thom Teater teen R80).
Vir die duur van die week sal daar verskeie kunsuitstallings in Stellenbosch te sien wees, byvoorbeeld “Oor die einders van die bladsy” waar kunstenaars met die konsep “boek” gespeel het.
Die fees bied beslis iets vir almal. Besoek gerus die Woordfees webtuiste vir die volledige program.
Feestelike Frankryk: Fabels en Geregte uit die Franse Platteland deur Louis Jansen van Vuuren, Hardy Olivier, Anet Pienaar Boektuisblad EAN: 9781868423606 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
The Petrona books blog alerts us to the fact that TheBookseller.com’s Catherine Neilan profiled crime writer Deon Meyer – and his Benny Griesel thriller, Thirteen Hours – ahead of Meyer’s appearance at the London Book Fair this April:
Perfect platform
“It’s extremely difficult for South African authors to break through here, so I will do as much as I can for the country,” Meyer says. “It’s absolutely a great time to be at LBF, because there has been an explosion of South African literature in the past few years, and there are some great new authors—a lot of black authors I think—not getting the recognition they deserve.”
On a personal level, Meyer is keen to use the platform to promote his own work, but recognises he has to “keep plugging away” to grow sales book by book. Thirteen Hours is his ninth novel, although only his sixth to be published in the UK.
One of my favourite authors has a look of cautious terror on his face while walking slowly backwards on the beach. This odd behaviour is not because I have criticised one of his characters or the plot of his latest book; Colin Cotterill is demonstrating what he did after coming across a tiger feasting on its kill on a jungle path when he was working in Burma some years ago. If the jungle cat had not found a meal already, the world might never have seen this writer’s growing series of books set in 1970s Laos and featuring the exploits of Dr Siri Paiboun, the septuagenarian chief (and only) coroner of the Peoples Democratic Republic of Laos, and who also hosts the spirit of a thousand-year old shaman.
This tiger-retreat demonstration over, the four Cotterill dogs lead us back to the small house where Colin’s wife Jess is getting squid ready to be grilled, which we will have before getting substantially drunk on Singha beer. It’s early evening on the Gulf of Siam, I am on holiday and Colin has finished the first book of his new series, so the drinking is guilt-free, plus there is always the excuse of this part of Thailand being very hot and humid in November.
Allow me some explanation as to how it came about that I found myself in the company of a famous author while backpacking around Thailand. Colin Cotterill must have one of the best and most unusual author web sites on the Web. This is due, in large part, to all the text on his site being written by hand and all the illustrations being drawn by the author himself. Another highly unusual element to his web site is that he actually gives his e-mail address (something he might regret after this). I was going to be passing through the area where the Cotterills live and decided to send him an e-mail and offer to buy him a drink. Being a short-story writer has made me near-impervious to rejection and I was not holding out much hope that I would actually get to do so, but to my surprise, he agreed. I think my case was helped by promising not to: a) act like a gushing fan; b) ask him to read anything; c) ask for any advice about getting published.
As it turns out, I was going to pass close by their post box. The Cotterills live very close to the middle of nowhere and if Colin had not offered to pick me up from their tiny local train station, I would never have found them.
On the way to their house from the train station we stopped to drop off a whiteboard at an illicit school in an abandoned fish factory that the Cotterills have started to help teach the children of the growing community of Burmese immigrants in the area. For some bizarre reason, the Thai government refuses to educate these children as a matter of national security.
Since early 2008, Colin and Jess Cotterill have lived next to the beach at Pak Nam Lang Suan, a small fishing community south of the provincial capital of Chumphon in the upper southern gulf of Thailand. They met while they were both teaching at a university in northern Thailand and the rest is happy history. Their house is modern, compact and cheerful, the result of Jess overseeing the build literally from the foundations up (it’s meant to be their guesthouse until they build a bigger place when the movie rights to the Dr Siri books are sold for a tidy sum – Colin says this is unlikely, however, since the books don’t have a lot of “…sex, drugs, prostitution and good looking western protagonists”). Jess also makes excellent carrot juice to soothe a Singha hangover and has taken in an assortment of stray dogs: Gogo, Little Beer, Psy(cho) and Sticky – so named because he resembled a ball of sticky rice as a pup. Colin is an avid gardener and their garden would be his pride and joy if not for the monsoon that regularly floods their property with sea water. He says that sometimes his biggest challenge in the garden is finding it.
Close to the house is a small studio where Colin pursues his passion for cartooning. When writing his books, he does so in a cottage owned by a friend a few kilometres away (although he heads home for lunch). According to him, the writing gets easier with every book, but since he is writing a series, keeping track of each character’s history and how they relate to each other has become more challenging.
(You may get the impression that in my opinion, Colin and Jess are really nice people, and this is true. I did try and discover mouldering skeletons or a hidden arms cache during my visit, but to no avail.)
Colin says he has only been able to write full time the last few years, despite having a very successful series now numbering seven books released through a number of publishers across the globe, and having received a Crime Writers Association Dagger in the Library award; a sobering reminder that writing – even successful writing – and huge financial rewards don’t automatically go together.
When asked how he starts a new book, Colin replied that he always starts with the title and then builds the story around it. This caused him a substantial amount of distress with his fourth Dr Siri book, Anarchy and Old Dogs which was initially titled The Devil’s Vagina (read the book and it will become clear why) – a title approved by his publisher, but later vetoed in no uncertain terms by the same publisher’s marketing department.
Originally from the UK, he is tall, lanky and tanned, with an easy smile, and it’s obvious that decades spent in Southeast Asia have suited him. A lot of cycling keeps him fit. Even though the sea is a stone’s throe away from their house, he avoids swimming in it after an unfortunate encounter with a jellyfish that landed him in the hospital.
In his short story/graphic collection Growing Old Disgracefully he relates how, shortly after moving to Lang Suan and while being roasted by the summer heat, he asked their neighbour – a 103 year-old lady named Sukhon – if it was safe to venture into the sea. She replied that in all her considerable time on earth she had never been harmed by anything in the sea. After the jellyfish incident, it transpired that she had omitted to mention that the reason for this is that she has never actually ventured into the water.
Andrew Salomon is an archaeologist and writer living in Cape Town. He was one of the PEN/Studzinski Literary Award winners in 2009 and his work has appeared in A Thousand Faces, Something Wicked and New Writing from Africa 2009. His short story “A Visit To Dr Mamba” is currently being made into a short film.
Alert!Suite101.com’s Cathy Sunshine – yes, that’s her real name – has, erm, spread some light on post-apartheid fiction for the online magazine’s rather gigantic audience (last known absolute ranking on the web: a fearsome 819).
Fiction writers in SA, as Sunshine points out, have been broadening their scope since democracy’s advent, and thus present an illuminating snapshot of the country – as long as you choose the right reads. Sunshine includes work from JM Coetzee, Zakes Mda and Sello K Duiker, plus BOOK SA members Niq Mhlongo and Rozena Maart; here are her top ten recent SA novels:
For half a century, South African novelists, poets, and playwrights focused on the brutality of apartheid and the struggle for a nonracial society. Prominent writers such as André Brink, Dennis Brutus, Nadine Gordimer, Zakes Mda, Ezekiel Mphahlele, and Alan Paton challenged apartheid, and some of their books were banned by the racist state.
The country’s first democratic elections in 1994 ended the era of anti-apartheid protest literature. But while legalized apartheid is gone, its toxic effects linger. Recent South African novels remain concerned with race, but they also look at urgent issues in the post-apartheid society: unemployment, poverty, and economic inequality; HIV/AIDS; rape and domestic violence; xenophobia (South Africa is a magnet for immigrants); and homophobia.
December with its heat and holidays is one of those wind-down months when nothing much happens except mornings at the beach, long lunches and long glasses of wine. Not for nothing is my city below the mountain nicknamed Grape Town. So at the beginning of 2010 crime fiction news from the bottom of Africa is more a wrap of 2009 than an anticipation of the new year. I’m sure we’ll catch up with the rest of the world one day, but probably not till the end of the month. That’s Africa time for you.
Mgqolozana deserves special mention, as he is the only SA author to appear twice, featuring on the lists of major literary personages Nadine Gordimer and Zakes Mda.
Last, thanks to Coovadia for finding the space to mention BOOK SA (and the Book Lounge) – we’re blushing!
From Albie Sachs and Thando Mgqolozana to Wells Tower and some lesser-known talents, the Sunday Independent’s reviewers and a handful of writers offer up the fruits of their readings
Michiel Heyns
Small Moving Parts by Sally-Ann Murray (Kwela). Her vast ragbag of 1960s recollections are a scintillating addition to the “childhood under apartheid” sub-genre.
Ways of Staying by Kevin Bloom (Picador Africa). Updates the picture soberingly, taking a long hard look at the present state of the rainbow nation, and refraining from despair only by a moving act of faith.
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates (Vintage). A new discovery for me this year, prompted by the movie. Originally published in 1961, this harrowing drama of suburban disaffection has lost nothing of its bleak power.
Alert! The London Book Fair may be several months away, but a veritable army of South African writers have already booked their tickets. In several cases, of course, we’re talking bus tickets, because many an SA scribe lives or works in the UK, and won’t have much to do to get to Earl’s Court, where the Fair takes place. But literally dozens of others will be packing for the long-haul flight from JNB to LHR come the tail end of April 2010.
BOOK SA understands that the following authors have given commitments (ranging from tentative to firm) to be part of the LBF’s South Africa Market Focus programme:
What a lineup – it’s going to be one heck of a party! (Plus, several other authors who’ve been invited are still deciding whether they can make the trip.) BOOK SA will be there, of course – and we can’t wait to bring all the action to our readers online.
For Londoners who want to get to know these authors better, a sampling of their works:
From the blurb for UK writer – and BBC 6 involvee – Philip Wilding’s debut novel, Cross Country Murder Song: “On a journey from the Jersey Shore to the Pacific Ocean, the driver crosses an America twisted beyond all recognition, as if in a fevered dream… On and off the road, we glimpse the lives of people who are touched by the driver in one way or another – a porn star who can no longer perform; a widower looking for love; two parents who return day after day to the spot where their son was killed.”
