Etienne van Heerden
Agent: Isobel Dixon
Assistant: Finlay Charlesworth
Biography: Etienne’s debut novel TOORBERG (1986) was internationally acclaimed and awarded many of South Africa’s major prizes. Among an impressive body of work, notable novels on the global stage include THE LONG SILENCE OF MARIO SALVIATI (2000), IN LOVE’S PLACE (2005) and 30 NIGHTS IN AMSTERDAM (2008). He has taught literature at the University of Cape Town, where he is Professor Emeritus, for many years. His work has been translated into twelve languages.
‘Van Heerden’s words blast the reader’s mind through a clear, blue African sky.’ — The Telegraph
‘Monumental, overwhelming, resounding confirmation of Van Heerden’s exceptional powers.’ — Rapport
‘The full extent of Etienne van Heerden’s talent is exhibited in this work: his unbridled imagination... a sharp analysis of society; a fine sense of humour and irony; a master storyteller... nothing short of a tour de force.’ — LitNet
HOW TO STEAL THE MILKY WAY
(Afrikaans: GEBEENTE)
Literary, 408 pages, Tafelberg, September 2023
Just outside the remote semi-desert village of Gebeente (‘Skeleton’), near Sutherland’s great astronomical observatory, a woman, the Observatory’s cleaner, lives alone. Once a young single mother, shunned by her family and the community, she had come to live here with her flame-haired child, her own ‘moon-and-star child of the Immaculate Conception’. But one day Social Services took her boy away from her. Thirty years later, he returns from the city, a Second Coming, but he is again rejected, accused of a brutal murder — and also, strangely, of having stolen the Milky Way.
The case, to be tried in a local court, brings outsiders to town. The Magistrate arrives by train on a line not used for many years. His old legal rival, the Prosecutor, arrives by car — and the City and The Law come face to face with a village rife with secrets, rich in rumour and myth-making, astronomy and mystery. In a layered and resonant narrative peopled with memorable characters, Van Heerden examines guilt, revenge and forgiveness, faith and imagination, and the truth, lies and legacies of a complex land.
As with his earlier classic, THE LONG SILENCE OF MARIO SALVIATI, Van Heerden tells an extraordinary, compelling story ‘weaving magic realism and history… capturing the stark beauty of the Karoo region and its people’ — his own ‘landscape of the mind’.
A LIBRARY TO FLEE
(Afrikaans: Die biblioteek aan die einde van die wêreld)
Literary, 624 pages, Tafelberg, 2019/2022
Lawyer Ian Brand sends out a tweet that changes his life irrevocably. Thuli Khumalo, Fallist leader, must choose between betraying her father and forsaking her principles. Snaar Windvogel, once the little violin girl of Matjiesfontein, is now in transition under the knife of Piekenier Leqluerck, plastic surgeon and fossa impresario. And all the while the Mother City’s mysterious crossbow killer is poised to strike again . . . An astonishing novel focusing on our dangerous, turbulent times.