André Brink

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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The following article was published originally in Afrikaans and German.

Yesterday, it appeared in The Sunday Independent’s DISPATCHES with this magnificent illustration by one of South Africa’s most remarkable illustrators, François Smit.

He is awakened by his wife just before three in the morning. There’s somebody in the house, she tells him.

Nonsense, he replies, befuddled with sleep. I’m sure it’s only a mouse.

That isn’t a mouse, she insists. It’s much bigger.

Then it’s a rat, he mumbles.

And then the rat shoots him in the face. He dies in the presence of his wife and small daughter, and they are forced at gunpoint to accompany the intruders as they ransack the house, leaving the dead body on the floor.

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What better way to celebrate Bastille Day than with a performance of Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment? And one does not have to travel far.

Cinema Nouveau (Rosebank, Brooklyn, Cavendish, Gateway) is offering a superb opera schedule at only R65 per person/per performance:

Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment
Mozart’s The Magic Flute
Puccini’s Manon Lescaut
Puccini’s La Bohème
Rossini’s The Barber of Seville
Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette

All performances are live recordings from the Metropolitan Opera and include wonderful backstage interviews and insights.

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The film which was based on André’s novel A Dry White Season (1979) is showing on SABC1 tonight at 8.

From the Sunday Times Magazine: “A schoolteacher (Donald Sutherland), insulated from the horrors of apartheid, is forced to get involved. Excellent historical drama.”

Also starring: Janet Suzman, Susan Sarandon, Zakes Mokae, Winston Ntshona, Jürger Prochnow, and Marlon Brando.

Directed by Euzhan Palcy.

Last Friday, 6 June, André was interviewed by Gerrit Brand at Die Burger meet-the-author lunch at Theo’s Restaurant in the Willowbridge Mall in Durbanville. They spoke about André’s latest novel in three parts Ander Lewens (forthcoming next year as Other Lives in English); his love for the opera, especially the dream team of the opera world, Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón, who have recently released a new recording of La Bohème on CD; and the tragic murder of André’s nephew, Adriaan Steenberg.

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.

This Saturday at 11 o’clock André will be launching his latest, ANDER LEWENS, at the Protea Boekwinkel in Stellenbosch.

For more information contact:

Protea Boekwinkel
Andringastraat
Bergzicht Plaza
7600 Stellenbosch | Map
Tel.: 021 882 9100
proteaboek@mweb.co.za
http://www.proteaboekhuis.co.za/

The following article appeared in By on Saturday, 26 April 2008, pp. 14-15:

OP SOEK NA VERONREGTE VROUE

Iewers in die jare tagtig, so nie al in die sewentigs nie, het George Weideman my die knipsel uit die Namibiese koerant Die Republikein gestuur wat Jan Spies nog op sy dag geskryf het oor die vroue wat laat in die 19de eeu en vroeg in die 20ste uit Duitsland na Duitswes verskeep is om in die vleeslike behoeftes van die Schutztruppe en ’n klompie vroeë koloniste te voorsien. Die deel van die storie wat my veral aangegryp het, het te doen gehad met die vervoer van die vroue vanaf Swakopmund na Windhoek, en die lot van die handjievol ongelukkiges wat deur al die manne verwerp is – ’n lot erger as die dood, want daardie manne het nie geskroom om koeie of kamele of hoenders nader te trek as die lus hulle in die dorre woestynland pak nie. Volgens Jan Spies se berig is diésulkes dan per ossewa in die Namib in geneem en afgelaai by ’n plek genaamd Frauenstein (“Vrouerots”) wat as ’n mengsel van bordeel, klooster en gestig vir sielsiekes diens gedoen het.
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The April issue of Wegbreek published an article by André on Grahamstown: “Grahamstad: stad van wors en oorlog”. The piece also appeared on LitNet:

Lank, lank gelede toe Grahamstad nog ’n dorpie was, het André P Brink daar ingetrek. Vandag, dekades later, kyk hy terug om te probeer sien hoekom dit steeds sy gunstelingblyplek is.

Dit was kort ná my aankoms in Grahamstad in 1960 dat my slagtervriend my een Saterdagoggend ingewag het met die mooi storie van die deftige Engelse dame, ’n bloubloed-afstammeling van die Britse Setlaars, wat hom die vorige dag ingeklim het oor die plakkate in sy slaghuisvenster. “Can’t you people ever forget the past?” het sy getier, met die you people ’n duidelike klap na Afrikaners. “Wherever you look, even after 60 years, it’s just that bloody Boer War, Boer War all the time.”
Waarna die antie verwys het, was die kennisgewings oor my vriend se voortreflike boerewors…

Click here to continue reading: “Grahamstad: stad van wors en oorlog”.

André and I will be travelling to Windhoek at the end of March to take part in the following events:

On Monday, 31 March, at 11 am, André is giving a lecture on his novels at the Windhoek College of Education in Khomasdal (entrance is free).

On Wednesday, 2 April, at 8 pm, he will participate in a public discussion with Prof. André du Pisani about literature and history at the Warehouse Theatre (there is an admission fee of N$100).
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