André Brink

Brink on fictional deaths, tutoring and that memoir

SA icon will make his maiden appearance at the Franschhoek festival, writes BEVERLEY BROMMERT

IT CAME as a relief to author André Brink to learn that this interview does NOT deal specifically with his latest publication, the memoir titled ‘n Vurk in die Pad (A Fork in the Road).

He complained that he has been “bombarded” with interviews about the new work for the past two months, since the English version appeared in February.

He was due to have yet another interview immediately after this one, which is on the subject of Brink’s participation in the forthcoming literary festival in Franschhoek in May.

Not surprisingly, one of his three appearances in the festival’s programme of events celebrating books and writers concerns ‘n Vurk in die Pad, about which he will chat to Susan Mann, to whom he refers as one of his “star students” among those aspiring authors whom he mentored for some years at UCT.

His second intervention is on the topic of teaching creative writing, and the third Brink participation will be in a discussion with Shaun Johnson and two fellow writers about the demise of characters in fiction, titled Sending Them off Gracefully and held, appropriately, in the Hospice Hall in Franschhoek.

On the now hoary subject of his memoir, Brink admits to feeling gratified at the intensity of interest it has generated: “None of my previous books has attracted so much attention, and I’ve no idea why this one should have, although it’s very pleasing… Perhaps it has to do with its publication just ahead of a crucial election.”

As he has had a long and rewarding friendship with Mann, he regards his interview with her during the festival as “a treat in store”, with the added benefit that no preparation will be necessary. “I expect it will take the form of a question-and-answer session.”

Continue reading: Brink on fictional deaths, tutoring and that memoir

(Cape Argus, 27 April 2009)

Read Rob Gaylard’s review of A Fork in the Road in the same issue.

Listen to André speak about his memoir, A Fork in the Road, on the BBC African Perspective.

In this week’s programme we talk to one of the most influential Afrikaans writers, André Brink.

Brink was brought up in a world of white power, superiority and brutality. But he rebelled against the beliefs and practices of his people, the Afrikaners, to become ‘a heretic’ or one who chooses.

The life he chose threatened his closest family relationships and saw his writings banned by the apartheid government in South Africa.

His journey from being complacent about the cruelties of racial oppression to becoming a sharp critic of the apartheid regime is described in his memoirs “A Fork in the Road“, which will be published this week in the UK, by Harvill Secker.

The latest edition of the Groot Verseboek was launched last Friday at the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town.

The following interview about the anthology appeared in today’s edition of Die Burger: “Louise Viljoen gesels met André P. Brink”

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In August, André and I travelled to Norway to attend the annual Bjørnson Festival in Molde, a coastal town situated between Ålesund and Kristiansund, also home to an international Jazz Festival. André was invited to be Writer in Residence in Molde and on the fjord island Ona as guest of the Bjørnson Festival.

Before the festival, we travelled to Ørsta where André was interviewed by Stephen Walton at the Ivar Aasen Centre, “a national centre for documenting and experiencing the New Norwegian written culture, and the only museum in the country devoted to Ivar Aasen’s life and work. The Centre lies on the farm where Aasen was born and grew up.”

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André will interview Willemien Brümmer at the launch of her debut collection of stories entitled Die dag toe ek my hare losgemaak het.

Date: Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Time: 6:00 PM for 6:30 PM

For further event details click here.
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Today’s edition of Die Burger features an interview with André by Murray la Vita:

HOEKOM EK IS WAT EK IS

“OP ’n grys Kaapse Maandagoggend is André P. Brink se ouers skielik teenwoordig in die studeerkamer van sy Victoriaanse huis.

Die uitstraling kom nie van die foto in die piouterraam op die ronde gehekelde kleedjie nie; die foto van die man en vrou wat hier op die wakis staan met ’n geelkoper-kersblaker aan elke kant van hulle. Soos huisgode op ’n altaartjie.

Nee. Sy ouers, en veral sy pa, kom deur ’n herinnering die vertrek binne…”

To read on click here.

Last month, André was invited to participate in the Crossing Border Festival in The Hague. At the festival he was interviewed by the scholar and his friend, Ena Jansen. I would love to tell you more about it, but it was in Dutch…and I haven’t even mastered Afrikaans yet.

The one thing I do know is that they spoke about the new Dutch edition of André’s The Blue Door, translated by Marian Lameris and Rob van der Veer. It was beautifully published by J.M. Meulenhoff. Click here to see the homepage. (more…)

In his book on Africa, Bartholomäus Grill wrote that sometimes literature can provide a small gap through which we can glimpse the invisible world of the continent (Ach, Afrika: Berichte aus dem Inneren des Kontinents, 2003).

This year, André’s British publisher Harvill Secker published Karen Connelly’s debut novel The Lizard Cage which opens a gap through which we can glimpse life in Burma between 1988 and 1995, the time between the anti-government riots in which hundreds of Burmese people lost their lives and the occasion when Aung San Suu Kyi was released from prison (even if only for a short period of time).

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