South Africa as you've never seen it: a tale of incest and white trash. Funny, feisty, ferociously clever. A dazzling flight of the imagination that is anarchic and at the same time, deadly serious. Read it.' Gillian Slovo

Marlene van Niekerk’s multi-award winning novel Triomf tells the story of the four residents of 127 Martha Street in the then ‘poor white’ suburb of Triomf, built on the ruins of old Sophiatown, once the vibrant and notorious centre of black city life in Johannesburg. This story of a highly dysfunctional Afrikaans family of the time illustrates the fear and trepidation that was felt about the political changes sweeping the land and their earnest and sometimes amusing attempts to make sense of life even under the most abject of circumstances. Triomf relentlessly probes Afrikaner history and politics, revealing the bizarre and tragic effect that apartheid had on the white underclass who should have been its main beneficiaries.

'An astonishing departure for Afrikaans literature ... this is an extraordinary novel and a milestone for South African literature. Those who thought, as I did, that white writing would run out of road in post-apartheid South Africa could not have been more wrong.' Justin Cartwright Daily Telegraph

'The tenderness of the writing, eliciting an unexpected compassion in the reader, is remarkable in a first-time novelist. It is not hard to poke fun at Afrikaners: to reveal their underlying humanity is a much more impressive accomplishment.' David Robson Sunday Telegraph

'Widely considered the outstanding Afrikaans novel of the 1990s ... Triomf is exquisitely written.' The Economist

'Van Niekerk's extraordinary novel, beautifully translated by the South African poet Leon de Kock, offers a devastating glimpse of an under-class locked into a cycle of poverty and despair.'

Won the CNA Literary Award, and M-Net Prize in South Africa.
Won the prestigious Noma Award for the best book in Africa.

R175.00 • ISBN: 978-1-86842-069-8 • May 2009 • TPB • 500 pages World rights • Category: Fiction

Triomf, originally written and published in Afrikaans, immediately captured the public imagination and proved to be a runaway success.

It was awarded the CNA Literary Award and the M-Net Prize in 1995 as well as the Noma Award for African literature. It is available in an outstanding translation by South African poet Leon de Kock.

This is the story of the four inhabitants of 127 Martha Street in the white suburb of Triomf, built over the ruins of the old Sophiatown, once a vibrant and notorious centre of black city life in Johannesburg. Pop – the angel of peace teetering on the brink of the grave; Treppie – master of misrule and family metaphysician; Mol – the materfamilias in her eternal housecoat and Lambert – the misfit son of the household, are the central characters. Through their eyes the novel probes Afrikaner history and politics of the old South Africa, in order to reveal the bizarre and tragic effects of apartheid on the white lower classes who should have been its main beneficiaries.

Marlene van Niekerk was born in 1954 in the Caledon district in the Western Cape. She studied philosophy, languages and literature at the universities of Stellenbosch, Amsterdam and Witwatersrand. She is lecturer for the Department of Afrikaans and Netherlands at Wits. She is the author of two collections of poetry, Sprokkelster (1976) and Groenster (1983) and a collection of short stories, Die vrou wat haar verkykers vergeet het (1992), which has also been published in a Dutch translation (Arena, Amsterdam (1998). She is presently working on a new novel and a second collection of short stories. She lives in Johannesburg.

A compelling novel, well-written with a complex and riveting plot and a rigorous commitment to historical accuracy.

It begins with the arrival in South Africa of the grandnephew of one of the central characters, Roland Carey. He is trying to establish what happened to his great uncle who, despite a public school and Oxford background, opted out of upper-class England and came to Africa to find himself and adventure.

On his way to Kimberley, he meets an unlikely companion, a black man, John Gumede, who had spent some time in England as a result of an association with a Natal-based Anglican bishop. Gumede subsequently worked on ships and travelled the world for a number of years. When he and Roland Carey meet up again on the way to Southern Rhodesia from Kimberley they develop a close and intellectually stimulating relationship.

A relationship between a white and black person was exceptional in British-controlled colonial Africa at that time and led to all sorts of conflicts, particularly after Roland fathered a son with the daughter of an African priest whom he had met through Gumede.

In the process of exposing racist attitudes, the plot has many unexpected twists and turns, as well as bringing the history of the time alive in a very accessible manner.

This could well become one of the major South African historical novels of recent years in its successful attempt to dramatically convey the attitudes and assumptions of racial superiority among the whites at that period in our tumultuous history.

Tim Keegan, formerly a history professor, has achieved an extraordinary feat in combining the genre of the novel with strict attention to historical accuracy.

Waiting for the Moon poignantly highlights the attitudes and assumptions of racial superiority among whites which shaped the early part of the twentieth century and could well become one of the major historical novels of recent times. Tim Keegan has a PhD from the University of London, and has published widely in the field of history. He lives and works in Cape Town.

Waiting for the Moon
Tim Keegan
Jonathan Ball Publishers
ISBN: 1868422259
Trade Paperback
R159,95