Estate of Tatamkhulu Afrika
Agent: Isobel Dixon
Assistant: Finlay Charlesworth
Biography: Tatamkhulu Afrika is a celebrated South African writer who died in 2002 at the age of 82. Born in Egypt of Arab/Turkish parents, but brought up by a white South African family, he led a colourful life (including imprisonment for his anti-apartheid activism) and only began writing in earnest in his seventies.
Author of eight volumes of poetry, winner of five major South African prizes and an All-Africa Citation. Included in TEN SOUTH AFRICAN POETS, his poetry has appeared in journals around the world. Also author of the novel THE INNOCENTS, a four-novella volume TIGHTROPE and his posthumously published memoir MR CHAMELEON.
BITTER EDEN has been shortlisted in the category of Best Gay Novel for the 27th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists.
- Sanlam Poetry Prize 2000, winner
- Sanlam Poetry Prize 1994, winner
- Thomas Pringle Award 1993, winner
- CNA Debut Prize 1991, winner
- Olive Schreiner Prize 1992, winner
- Thomas Pringle Award 1991, winner
Praise for BITTER EDEN:
‘Such a powerful, melodic, urgent and honest story of suffering, love and survival I have never quite encountered before. This is a jewel of a tale — a vital and raw piece of the true human experience — and it needs to never be forgotten. I am honored to have read it, and will pass it along to many others.’ – Elizabeth Gilbert, author of EAT, PRAY, LOVE
‘BITTER EDEN’s love is neither kind nor tame nor ever adorned. The word love is never mentioned, because love—if this is really the name for it—is so spare and brutal and bare-knuckled that the characters themselves aren’t even aware of it. But this book will haunt you, and stay with you, and won’t ever let go, just like the memory of a love that never happened but should have happened continues to exact its toll of misfired hopes and regrets. But the language is not spare and the poetry here, like shards of a broken bottle, is simply everywhere.’ – André Aciman, author of CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
‘Bitter Eden is earthy and lyrical, caustic and moving.’ – Christos Tsiolkas, author of THE SLAP
BITTER EDEN
Literary fiction, Blue Mark Books UK Oct 2016, Picador USA, February 2014
A haunting novel based on the author's experiences as a prisoner-of-war in World War II in Italy and Germany. BITTER EDEN deals with three men who see themselves as ‘straight’, but must negotiate the emotions brought by survival in male-only camps.
MR CHAMELEON
Memoir, 424 pages.
Jacana Media
An autobiography which lays bare not only the life events of this remarkable man, but also his innermost secrets and revelations, things that he withheld from even his close friends during his lifetime, all written with an stylish elegance.
THE INNOCENTS
Literary fiction
Seven Stories Press, 1994
A gripping account of how, in the myriad political battles of our recent past, an even greater number of private wars were lost or won.
‘A novel of great depth and sincerity.’ – Cape Times