Yesterday saw super sleuth Piet Byleveld become – in a rather dramatic turn of events – the target of murder convicted Donovan Moodley’s application for a retrial.
Moodley, convicted for the kidnapping and murder of Leigh Matthews in 2005, is now claiming that he was tortured by Detective Byleveld and forced to confess. He further claims that he told Byleveld the kidnapping was orchestrated by three drug dealers – Frank, Allie and Jemba – but that the detective forced him to say that he carried it out alone.
However, Byleveld has always maintained his belief that Moodley had help, at least, in moving the body (as he explains in this podcast) although, according to Byleveld, Moodley refused to reveal his accomplice(s).
Convicted murderer Donovan Moodley argued in the High Court in Johannesburg on Wednesday to be retried for the 2004 kidnap and murder of university student Leigh Matthews.
He was applying for a retrial — something without precedent in South African law — because he wanted to tell “this version of the truth, which I maintain to be the truth”, he told the court.
Mandy Wiener, author of the highly acclaimed book, Killing Kebble, tweeted from the retrial, which continued in the Johannesburg High Court today.
In one tweet, Wiener speculated whether Moodley had been reading Antony Altbeker’s Fruit of a Poisoned Tree, after Moodley repeatedly referred to the “Poisoned Tree” planted by Byleveld and Van Zyl.
Two British authors who have recently received acclaim for their debut novels, Stephen Kelman and Christie Watson, come under scrutiny from critic Boyd Tonkin – not just for the quality of their prose, but also for the weft and warp of their stories, which are woven with African threads. Watson won the Costa first novel award for her book, Tiny Sunbirds Far Away, and Kelman appeared on the Man Booker Prize shortlist last year for Pigeon English.
The success of these novels has led to “anxiety in some quarters”, writes Tonkin in the Independent. That Kelman’s novel is about a Ghanaian migrant child and Watson’s story is set in the Niger Delta raises “what should be now an utterly defunct question” about the “ownership” of people’s stories, African or otherwise:
Congratulations to Christie Watson, a part-time paediatric nurse at Great Ormond Street hospital – and graduate of that literary Fame Academy, the creative-writing MA at UEA in Norwich. This week she won the Costa first-novel award for her debut, Tiny Sunbirds Far Away. The book, which I recommend, drew warm praise for its tough-minded but tender-hearted portrayal of life in the Niger Delta from several African authors; and the blurb on her paperback jacket nods to her “dual heritage, multi-faith family” in London. She’s not Nigerian herself; any more than Stephen Kelman, author of the Man Booker-shortlisted Pigeon English, shares a background with the Ghanaian migrant child who tells his tale.
I hate to say it, but I read this book because of its striking cover! I like to think I choose a book based on the story, the writing level and whether or not I will enjoy it. This one was different because I picked up the book thinking “Gosh, this cover is amazing!” and after reading the first page while browsing an ExclusiveBooks store, I had to have it.
It took me a while to get into Harrison Opoku’s head, an eleven year old Ghanaian boy who has just immigrated to the UK. Harri is an extremely lovable character from page one, the innocence of his age takes over and the read can barely begin to wonder where the story is going as Harri twists you up in a new language (Jargon and slang that only children his age can fathom) and weird characters that he is only starting to understand. Harri is a runner and the second best, at that, in his grade and as he occupies himself solely on his new trainers and school, Harri’s surroundings are stripped away slowly for the reader to grasp.
The third InZync poetry session is set to take place on the 3rd of June and will feature poetry readings by Adrian Different, Khanyisile Mbongwa and Marlene van Niekerk (author of Agaat), as well as an open mic session, so you can “come and gooi your poems in your mama’s language”.
The session takes place at Amazink Eatery in Kayamandi. Entrance is free and a shuttle service going to and from the Stellenbosch University campus, Goldfields residence and Amazink Eatery will be available before and after the event.
Marlene van Niekerk’s prize-winning novel, Agaat, translated into English by Michiel Heyns, has been longlisted for the the Best Translated Book Award, supported by Amazon.com. The shortlist will be anounced on 24 March and the awards ceremony will take place in New York on the 29th of April as part of the PEN World Voices Festival.
Marlene van Niekerk’s widely acclaimed novel AGAAT has been longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award, supported by Amazon.com in the US. Featuring authors from 19 countries writing in 12 languages, the list includes work by David Grossman, Per Petterson, Tove Jannson and Robert Walser. The shortlist is to be announced on 24 March and the awards ceremony will take place in New York City on 29 April, as part of the PEN World Voices Festival.
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. 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. Rights have been sold to Gallimard in France, Neri Pozza in Italy, Querido in Holland, and Svante Weyler in Sweden. Film rights are sold to Mutz-Media.
The work of two prize-winning novelist who have now also tried their hand at dramas for the stage will be seen at this year’s KKNK festival.
Marlene van Niekerk’s Die kortstondige raklewe van Anastasia W and Ingrid Winterbach’s Spyt will be performed at the festival which is on in Oudtshoorn from 2 to 9 April.
The programme of the Absa KKNK (2–9 April) offers a wide variety of experiences and plays a leading role in the development of new work for the stage.
The theatre offering at the festival is extended to include more than 30 productions this year, of which 17 will be performed at the festival for the first time. These debut works span a broad spectrum of themes and will speak to diverse audiences.
I’ve been spoilt for choice for South African literature this year. I’ve been lucky enough to receive wonderfully creative books across the genre of South African writing and it’s been difficult to choose only one or two. So I decided to make ten separate award categories for my Top Ten Reads of the Year. In this way I don’t have to compare a crime novel with a literary biography, for example, and I can do better justice to the many literary talents flourishing in our country at the moment. Here they are in no particular order.
Firstly, the Award for Excellence in Biographical Writing has to go to Lyndall Gordon for her amazing biography on the poet Emily Dickinson, Lives like Loaded Guns. Lyndall Gordon is a South African author who has written some of the most definitive literary biographies in the world, including those of TS Eliot, Virginia Woolf and Mary Wollstonecraft. She has remained true to her South African roots as she spends every summer at her holiday home in the Cape. Not only should we be proud of her incredible cleverness, but we should also salute her for making literary biography as compelling as any whodunit. I’ll be interviewing her for LitNet early next year.
Alert! Having caught wind, yesterday, of Zakes Mda’s upcoming SALA for Lifetime Achievement, BOOK SA has now acquired the complete list of this year’s SALA awardees.
The South African Literary Awards are an initiative of the wRite Associates, backed by the DAC, Sowetan and Nutrend Publishers. Awarded on a somewhat erratic yearly timetable – and across a somewhat erratic list of categories – they are meant to recognise literary work that exhibits “good linguistic presentation, the nation’s identity, the societal values, universal truths, and cultural aesthetics, contribution to social cohesion, nation-building and transcendence of time”.
Here are 2009′s SALA awardees, and, without further ado, here is the 2010 crop – which includes a goodly number of BOOK SA members, it might be added:
The Abundant Herds: A Celebration of the Sanga-Nguni Cattle of the Zulu People by Marguerite Poland, David Hammond-Tooke, illustrated by Leigh Voigt Book homepage
EAN: 9781874950691 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
Verdict: double stick. Strong words from the brother of the man who wrote the foreword to Gibbs’ To the Point. Kirsten calls Gibbs an “idiot” and says his brother would never have written the foreword had he seen the book’s contents in advance – and pours scorn on Arthur, recalling that he was once known as “Mickey Who”. Not quite a book review – more an ad hominem take-em-on:
To the Point and Taking the Mickey are classic examples of disgruntled folk who took their eye off the ball and allowed themselves to veer off course, completely missing the point and forgetting the vast goodwill of people who installed them initially on their thrones.
Makhaya was a successful product of the United Cricket Board’s (now Cricket SA’s) development programme in the 1990s. I will never forget the day in King William’s Town early in the 1990s when, as part of our Border duties, Greg Hayes, Stephen Jones, Ken Watson, Piet Botha, Raymond Booi and I attended a practice at Dale College in an attempt to identify talent and assist with some coaching expertise.
This was the first time I would see Ntini bowl. He was then 15 years old. He stood out like a beacon with a positive run up, a jump to the left at the crease and he was pacy for his age, which was frightening for the coaches as the batsmen were not wearing helmets.
Alert!Exclusive Books has released its annual list of top titles on promotion going into the festive season.
Usually known, simply, as “The List”, its name has been modified slightly this year. “The Wish List” made a glittering debut at The Birdcage in Saxonwold, Johannesburg this afternoon, with several of the SA authors who made the cut present. BOOK SA had a photographer there; click here for the Facebook gallery.
Now, down to business. The Wish List features the usual mix of food, fluff, fun and the formidable among local and international titles – and we’re pleased to see BOOK SA members Justin Fox and John van de Ruit in the mix, along with a host of their SA Lit peers.
Here are this year’s SA titles. Note that not all books will be immediately available, as some haven’t been announced by their publishers yet!
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And here are the books from parts US and UK that will be promoted in EB stores this season:
East Coast Tables: Specialties, Flavours, Family Recipes and Kitchen Secrets from the KwaZulu-Natal Coast by Erica Platter, Clinton Friedman, Gwyn Platter
EAN: 9780620468992 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
The Grand Design: New Answers to the Ultimate Questions of Life by Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow
EAN: 9780593058305 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting the World by David Kirkpatrick
EAN: 9780753522745 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
Superfreakonomics, Illustrated Edition: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance by Stephen J Dubner, Steven D Levitt
EAN: 9781846143038 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
The World’s Greatest Idea: The 50 Greatest Ideas that Have Changed Humanity by John Farndon
EAN: 9781848311961 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
Why the West Rules – For Now: he Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future by Ian Morris
EAN: 9781846681479 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
Moodley, convicted for the kidnapping and murder of Leigh Matthews in 2005, is now claiming that he was tortured by Detective Byleveld and forced to confess. He further claims that he told Byleveld the kidnapping was orchestrated by three drug dealers – Frank, Allie and Jemba – but that the detective forced him to say that he carried it out alone. 
Mandy Wiener, author of the highly acclaimed book, Killing Kebble, tweeted from the retrial, which continued in the Johannesburg High Court today. 
Mandy Wiener
Verdict: carrot
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