Marlene Van Niekerk's compelling story of love and family loyalty in apartheid South Africa, AGAAT (UK title: THE WAY OF THE WOMEN) was number one for five consecutive weeks on the Swedish Bestseller charts.
Marlene van Niekerk has received wide recognition for AGAAT since it was first published in South Africa - by Tafelberg in Afrikaans in 2004, and in English by Tafelberg with Jonathan Ball in 2006, translated by prize-winning translator and novelist Michiel Heyns. AGAAT was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2008 and won the South African Sunday Times Literary Award in 2005, and Heyns was awarded Outstanding Translation Award in 2009 as well as the Sol Plaatje Award for Translation in 2008. It was listed as a Best Book in 2010 by both Publisher's Weekly, and Booklist. AGAAT was brought out in the UK by Little Brown in 2007 under the title THE WAY OF THE WOMEN and Tin House published AGAAT under its original title in 2010. It has been published to great praise by Neri Pozza in Italy, Querido in Holland, and Svante Weyler in Sweden. Gallimard will publish in France, btb in Germany and film rights are sold to Mutz-Media.
Praise for AGAAT:
'I was immediately mesmerized by Ms. van Niekerk's novel. Its beauty
matches its depth and her achievement is as brilliant as it is
haunting.' -- Toni Morrison
'Van Niekerk follows the widely lauded TRIOMF with a dark, innovative epic .' -- Publishers Weekly starred review
'This novel stuns with its powerful sense of the rigors of farm life, desolation of a failing marriage, and comfort of a long and complex relationship.' -- Vanessa Bush, Booklist starred review