Dié boek is rock ’n roll in die binnewêreld van die legendariese liedjieboer, Anton Goosen. Hanlie Retief vertel Goosen se buitengewone lewensverhaal – van sy grootwordjare in die Vrystaat, die Musiek-en-Liriek-era, sensuur, hoogtepunte en teleurstellings . . . tot waar die vader van Afrikaanse Rock 'n terugblik gee op sy merkwaardige lewe.

Renowned cartoonist Dov Fedler got the opportunity in the 1980s to have a dream come true: Directing a movie. He had no idea how to do it, but didn’t let that stop him. This memoir is a humorous story of the pitfalls that opened up as he worked on a movie where the cast wasn’t allowed to speak English to him while he spoke no isiZulu, the producer was just shy of being a crook, and where Dov had no idea the apartheid government was funding it.

When Charlene Wittstock married Prince Albert of Monaco in a starstudded wedding watched by millions across the world in 2011, rumours of her getting cold feet and her unhappiness about his love children swirled around the couple. Ever since then, the statuesque Olympic swimmer has been in the eye of the paparazzi and the centre of endless tabloid speculation and malicious rumour-mongering.

Is the bubbly, down-to-earth South African lonely in glamorous Monaco? Is it a marriage of convenience? What is truth behind her health issues? These are just some of the questions that roil so publicly around her.

Journalist Arlene Prinsloo sifts fact from fiction in this revealing unauthorised biography of Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene. Prinsloo traces her life from humble beginnings in Zimbabwe, Johannesburg and Durban to the Olympic Games, her jet-set romance with the bachelor prince, a ‘fairy-tale’ wedding and becoming a mother to twins.

At its heart, it’s the story of a woman in search of happiness for herself and her family – and also of the beginning of Charlene defining her own space amid the royal protocol.

In this fresh and highly readable collection of South African biographical essays, a distinguished group of authors illuminates the lives of eleven colourful, complex men and women whose personal experiences throw fascinating light on the times in which they lived.

The individuals whose stories are told here are very different in time, in place and in work and at play, but are united by an abundantly rich humanity and the myriad ways in which they navigated their existence through the uneven terrain of South Africa's distant and more recent past. Including colonial administrators, activists, educationists, sportsmen, a poet, a painter and a pilot, Illuminating Lives is a wide-ranging and moving book that provides readers with striking and unexpected insights into our history.

Here are some intriguing South African lives well worth knowing about.

In 1980’s apartheid Cape Town, five-year-old Desiree-Anne is grappling with how she’s going to turn her tar baby doll’s skin into sweet, soft lily-white. What she has learnt is that Whites are better than "everyone else". She doesn’t know how to force her father to stop drinking or gambling or make her mother love her or get the boys and men to stop touching her in secret. She learns how to soothe the pain: through secret masturbation and lying.

As she grows up, she begins to understand the rules of living in her depressed family as well as in her fractured community.

In her teens, laden with the awkwardness of bushy, unruly hair, braces, and a body shorter and rounder than a Womble – and now firmly planted in a 'White School', Desiree-Anne is forced to confront her ‘Coloured identity crisis’. She turns to self-harm, disordered eating, the thrill of petty theft and escapism through books and acting. Although she wins a place to study drama at UCT, sensing her parents cannot afford the tuition, she opts to go to the UK where she gets lost in bars, clubs and pills. On her return to South Africa she embraces the “free love” Ecstasy trance club scene but when she meets Darren, a heroin addict, she turns to needles. Her search for love and acceptance descends into a self-destructive spiral as an intravenous smack addict.

This is a harrowing memoir on the darkness of addiction, but it is also a touching and sometimes humorous account of a little-girl-turned-woman’s deep need and reckless pursuit for love. When Desiree-Anne finally finds recovery years later, she uncovers her real voice to talk and write about things that were previously left unspoken.

Wat beteken dit as ’n jong Afrikanerman jou beskryf as “nogals orraait”? Hoe trek jy die gehoor se aandag as die basaarpoeding hulle gemesmeraais het? En waar in die wêreld is die berugte Pomona Spur? In dié piepie-jou-nat-van-die-lag memoire verklap Schalk – en sy soortvan-bestuurder, Erns Grundling – die bisarre en hartroerende dinge wat hy oorgekom het op sy reise regoor die land na oral waar ’n mikrofoon en ’n gehoor hom inwag.

As a sangoma (traditional healer), Nkunzi is able to explore dimensions of her sexual identity because of her relationship with both male and female ancestors.

‘In Zulu culture a man must be a man and do male things and a woman must be a woman and do female things but with sangomas it is more flexible. I can dance like a woman and wear a woman’s clothes and dance like a man and wear a man’s clothes. I can do the work of a man, like slaughtering a goat or a cow although in traditional Zulu culture a woman cannot slaughter …’

Conscious of her constitutional rights as an urban young lesbian in a time of a relentless spate of hate crimes against township lesbians, Nkunzi is simultaneously sensitive to the demands of the guiding ancestral voice of the traditional, rural Zulu patriarch whose name she bears. Her quest is for a middle path of balance and integration between the living and the dead, the traditional and the modern.

‘Met die middagson kom die lugspieëlings wat aan die vallei sy naam gegee het: Deception Valley. Dan skuil alles wat asemhaal in die koelte van ’n matjarra, rug na die wind gedraai. In die lang geelwit gras lê die leeus uitgestrek en slaap. Net die vlakvarke draf stertorent nader vir ’n modderbad.’

Annelize Slabbert was ’n joernalis in Johannesburg en haar man, Gerard, ’n apteker. Stedelinge. Toe word hulle moeg vir die lewe in die stad, die spitsverkeer, die gebrek aan stilte en sterre. En hulle volg die krom wandelpad na Die Droom van ’n landelike idille met skape en groen gras. Tot, uiteindelik, in die son en sand van die Sentraal-Kalahari in Botswana waar hulle ’n vierster-lodge bestuur. Wat kan dan nou verkeerd loop? 'n Ware verhaal, uitstekend vertel, skreeusnaaks en aangrypend.

In her much anticipated memoir, Sisonke Msimang writes about her exile childhood in Zambia and Kenya, young adulthood and college years in North America, and returning to South Africa in the euphoric 1990s. She reflects candidly on her discontent and disappointment with present-day South Africa but also on her experiences of family, romance, and motherhood, with the novelist’s talent for character and pathos.

Militant young comrades dance off the pages of the 1970s Lusaka she invokes, and the heady and naive days of just-democratic South Africa in the 1990s are as vividly painted. Her memoir is at heart a chronicle of a coming-of-age, and while well-known South African political figures appear in these pages, it is an intimate story, a testament to family bonds and sisterhood.

Sisonke Msimang is one of the most assured and celebrated voices commenting on the South African present – often humorously; sometimes deeply movingly – and this book launches her to an even broader audience.

Ethienne reynecke se ongelooflike verhaal.

In 2018 het die doodsengel drie keer aan die oudrugbyspeler Ethienne Reynecke se deur geklop. Hy het geweier om oop te maak – toe sy milt bars, toe hy ’n beroerte gehad het en toe hy in die agterkop geskiet is. Boonop, ná ’n egskeiding daardie jaar, het sy twee liefingdogters na ’n ander stad verhuis. Die noodlot het sy spraakvermoë gesteel en hom sy werk as kommentator by SuperSport gekos. Dit het hom, soos Reynecke dit stel, in ’n pampoen verander. Maar het hy geweier om bes te gee.

Minder as twee jaar later, in Maart 2020, word Reynecke die Suid-Afrikaanse ligswaargewig-amateurkampioen in gemengde gevegskuns (MMA).

Hierdie is die storie van hoe Ethienne Reynecke dit reggekry het om staande te bly en vas te klou aan hoop waar wanhoop ander sou meesleur.

Van sy eerste dag as nasionale dienspligtige was Francois Verster in die sop weens sy ingebore rebelsheid. Hy vertel op skreeusnaakse wyse van sy basiese opleiding en lewe as troeponderwyser op Omega.

Hierdie geensins verromantiseerde storie bied ’n vars hoek op die Grensoorloggenre en ’n blik op hoe Afrikanermans die nuwe Suid-Afrika beleef.

Africa is falling. Africa is succeeding. Africa is betraying its citizens. Africa is a place of starvation, corruption, disease. African economies are soaring faster than any on earth. Africa is squandering its bountiful resources. Africa is a roadmap for global development. Africa is turbulent. Africa is stabilising. Africa is doomed. Africa is the future.

All of these pronouncements prove equally true and false, as South African journalists Richard Poplak and Kevin Bloom discover on their 9-year roadtrip through the paradoxical continent they call home. From pillaged mines in Zimbabwe to the creation of an economic marketplace in Ethiopia; from Namibia’s middle class to the technological challenges facing Nollywood in the 21st Century; from China’s investment in Botswana to the rush for resources in the Congo; and from the birth of Africa’s newest country, South Sudan, to the worsening conflict in CAR, here are eight adventures on the trail of a new Africa.

Part detective story, part report from this economic frontier, Continental Shift follows the money as it flows through Chinese coffers to international conglomerates, to heads of state, to ordinary African citizens, all of whom are intent on defining a metamorphosing continent.

Reflecting on South Africa´s achievement of majority rule, these volumes take a critical and searching look at the country´s past.

With chapters contributed by the best historians of the country, the volumes elaborately weave together new data, interpretations, and perspectives on the South African past, from the Early Iron Age to the present.

Their findings incorporate new sources, methods, and concepts and represent an important reassessment of all the major historical events, developments, and records of South Africa - written, oral, and archaeological.

A story of determination and guts of a boy `born with a wooden spoon' in his mouth, who managed through perseverance and sheer will power to turn that into one of silver.

Born the third child of hardworking, honest Jewish parents in Krugersdorp in 1941, a nervy, hypochondriac who broke into a nervous rash whenever he felt uncomfortable or stressed, the boy was a total disaster, academically promoted to higher classes only because of his age. From an early age John would listen to the radio at any opportunity that presented itself, spending hours perfecting the mimicking of great commentators, holding a tablespoon up to his mouth as he spoke, setting his mind on a career in radio. Through a series of coincidences his lucky break finally came and he was employed by the fledgling commercial station LM Radio in Lourenco Marques (Maputo).

< From a stammering, stuttering insecure young announcer, he quickly blossomed and began to make his mark on the station. Sent to Australia by the legendary David Davies to study commercial radio John brought back the secret and pattern of success of commercial radio in Australia, which became the blueprint for broadcasting in South Africa. His radio career spanned 40 years, included working on LM Radio, SABC, Springbok Radio, Radio 5, Capitol Radio, Swazi Music Radio and 702 is legendary.

Pioneering modern radio in South Africa, he broke new ground in radio broadcasting through his hilarious parodies of situations, phone calls to unsuspecting victims, his `characters' such as `Jan Sweetpak' and others, his humour and development of talk shows and techniques used by many today. He developed `Theatre of the mind' and took it to new heights, with a vision to push for talk radio at a time others said it would fail and changed the face of broadcasting in South Africa. On any morning, his talent and effect was measurable, one only had to look at other drivers in Johannesburg's rush hour traffic to see the smiling faces as he brightened the day with his machine gun fire wit and humour.

A man of great humility and integrity, this book shows how much can be achieved when the odds are stacked against you and all you have is determination, passion and an unparalleled talent for communicating.

Exit! is the story of Grizelda Grootboom life of prostitution and her ultimate escape from it all.

Grizelda’s life was dramatically changed when she was gang raped at the age of nine by teenagers in her township. Her story starts there. It is a story about the cycle of poverty, family abandonment, dislocation and survival in the streets of Cape Town. She reveals the seedy and often demonised life of a prostitute; she describes the clubs and beds of the prostitution and drug industry over a twelve-year period.

She moves to Johannesburg at the age of 18 in an attempt to start a new life, but instead she is trafficked on arrival in Yeoville, tied in a room for two weeks and forced to work as a sex slave. What follows is a life of living hand-to-mouth, from one street corner to another, being pimped, being taught how to strip, and acquiring and using a variety of drugs – from buttons, ecstasy and cannabis to cocaine – to sustain herself. She speaks of how her prostitution gains momentum in city strip clubs and the sometimes tragic pregnancies that would follow.

Grizelda’s harrowing tale ends with reconciliation with her family, while raising her six-year-old son. In writing this story she hopes to open a window on the hidden and often misunderstood world of prostitution, thereby raising better awareness and understanding about its harms and the horrors of trafficking and prostitution of women and children, and drug abuse. She hopes to heal and to set an example for others to follow.

Regardt se lewe het glad nie naby God begin het nie, maar hy het beslis die pad na Hom gevind. Hy vertel van sy vroegste kinderjare in Bez Valley tot die punt waar sy lewe op die kruin van sy loopbaan, ná ’n onverskillige lewe met drank en ’n vergeefse soeke na ’n dieper sin, heeltemal uitmekaarval. Hy het sy gesin en huis verloor, maar een oggend met ’n babelaas en trane wat oor sy wange loop ’n onvergeetlike ontmoeting met God gehad wat sy hele lewe vir goed verander het.

Regardt is die merkwaardige verhaal van ’n man wat nooit sy passie vir die lewe en vir rolprente verloor het nie, maar wat op ’n swaar manier moes leer dat toewyding en gehoorsaamheid aan God die vreugde en sin bring wat hom opgewonde maak oor sy lewe. Vandag is hy gelukkig getroud met Clara Joubert.

Die lig van die silwerdoek skyn weer op hom en oor sy lewe sê hy met oortuiging: “Dis nie luck nie – net genade.”

In Die Ou Met Die Snor By Die Bar vertel die superster-rapper Jack Parow van sy lewe en al sy wilde, mal avonture.

Die storie begin agter die Boereworsgordyn en maak draaie in plekke soos Onrusrivier, The Lollipop Lounge in Randburg, Mitchells Plain, België, Nederland, Londen, Los Angeles, Hollywood en Moskou.

Daar is sappige staaltjies oor wilde partytjies, warm bokkies, dodgy plekke, trance-paarties en avonture in jacuzzi’s, en hy lig ook die sluier oor sy ervarings met onder andere rofstoeiers, skoonheidskoninginne, polisiemanne, hipsters in nagklubs, ’n sanger wat hom wou bliksem, ooms wat hom van verhoë gegooi wil hê en ’n stewige tannie wat met ’n krieketkolf op hom afstorm.

Parow beantwoord ook taai vrae wat al deur mense aan hom gevra is, soos: Is dit waar wat hulle sê van ’n man met ’n lang pet? En: Hoe kry jy dit reg om jou snor so te hou dat girls dit onweerstaanbaar vind? Hy vertel die stories agter sy gewildste songs en draai nie doekies om oor wat hy van ’n klomp goed dink nie, soos die ‘ou’ Afrikaans en die ‘nuwe’ Afrikaans, die lewe in Suid-Afrika en wat dit regtig beteken om ’n rapper te wees. Die boek bevat ook die lirieke van baie van sy treffers en talle foto’s wat nog nooit voorheen gesien is nie.

Errol Tobias se verkiesing tot Springbok was onmiddelik omstrede. In 1980 word hy ons eerste swart Springbok rugbyspeler – te midde van internasionale sport-isolasie en groeiende protes weens die regeringsbeleid. In Errol Tobias: Suiwer Goud vertel hy openhartig van sy sportloopbaan: vanaf kindsbeen tot met die groot oomblikke in die groen-en-goud, die vreugdes, die verlies, en die omstredenheid.

Die waarheid agter legendariese rugbywedstryde word onthul, soos die Suid-Amerikaanse toer waar Tobias ’n rekord gebreek het, en die rampspoedige Nieu-Seeland-toer waar protesaksie teen die Springbokspan oorweldigend geword het. Hy skryf oor sy hegte vriendskap met Springboklegende Rob Louw, en die onwrikbare ondersteuning van Danie ‘Dok’ Craven. Hier is ook Tobias se opinie oor vandag se kwotastelsels.

Baie ander mense het al hul opinie oor Errol Tobias en sy rol in Suid-Afrikaanse rugby gelewer. Hier is sý kant van die saak.

Blind Date At A Funeral is a collection of coming-of-age stories by bestselling author Trevor Romain, which he recorded in journals, notebooks and on beer-stained bar napkins over the years and is retelling now.

Trevor takes us on a tour of his own memories, filled with anecdotes about foolish endeavours, dumb decisions, army adventures and the searing pain of losing the love of your life. Each story is accompanied by one of Trevor’s classic drawings and carefully crafted with a pitch-perfect combination of humour and nostalgia.

Both entertaining and deeply moving, this is a book about what it really means to be proudly South African.

Gebasseer op ‘n ware verhaal van geloof en oorwinning.

As 16-jarige vlug Engela na Bloemfontein, want die leier van die Sataniese Groep 13 wil haar doodmaak. Haar paaie kruis met dié van Pieter, ʼn vriend van haar broer, wat haar aan ʼn bordeel-eienaar uitlewer as betaling vir die geld wat hy hom skuld.

Na ʼn haglike en armoedige kinderlewe raak Engela as rebelse tiener deurmekaar met Satanisme, drank en dwelms en word uiteindelik as seksslaaf aangehou. Haar enigste begeerte is om te ontsnap, maar hoe? Elke aand word die klub se deure dig gesluit. Haar laaste kans op vryheid is die jong student, Jacques, wat in die ontvangslokaal van die klub werk. Maar dan verdwyn hy ook uit die prentjie na ʼn raaiselagtige ongeluk in die Drakensberge.

Van Skoolbank Tot Bordeelbed is ʼn spanningsroman deur Jaco Hough-Coetzee, gebaseer op die aangrypende lewensverhaal van Elanie Kruger.

In die tweede gedeelte van die boek gesels Elanie self met die leser oor haar bittere ervarings. Sy vertel hoe sy haar gevoelens van verlorendheid, alleenheid, pyn en vernedering vanuit ʼn Christelike perspektief leer hanteer het. Sy reik uit na ander gewese seksslagoffers en moedig hulle aan om hul harte uit te stort om emosionele genesing mee te bring. Sy praat oor die krag van vergifnis en aanvaarding, en gee ook lewensbelangrike praktiese wenke aan ouers en kinders.

As Africa's oldest orchestra, and certainly its most versatile, the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra is a proud part of the fabric of the Mother City. Founded in 1914 as a municipally funded ensemble, the orchestra was privatised in 1986 and later merged with the former Capab orchestra, achieving independence in 2000.

A Century Of Symphony tells the story of Cape Town’s orchestras over the past 100 years. Bringing together reminiscences, anecdotes and heartfelt stories by players, conductors and audience members, images of the orchestra both past and present, and information gathered from city, newspaper and university archives, A Century Of Symphony offers a timeless perspective on the place of orchestral music in the life of the city.

The challenges of running an orchestra in the 21st century are formidable, but the orchestra’s mission to deliver first-class music played by first-class musicians in a sustainable way has never been more apparent. Outreach and education efforts in disadvantaged communities point the way to the future. This is a story not only worth telling, but also worth preserving, for Cape Town’s orchestras have been the cultural jewel of the city for 100 years.

(Includes a shrinkwrapped CD of music played by the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra)

Dit het die land geruk, die wêreld geboei en sal in die geskiedenis bekendstaan as die opspraakwekkendste hofsaak tot nog toe in Suid-Afrika. Oscar Pistorius se moordverhoor is die storie van die dekade. Dis ’n liefdesverhaal wat ’n misdaadriller geword het, ’n sprokie wat in bloed geëindig het.

En dís hoe Marida Fitzpatrick die verhaal vertel. Sy weef die skrikwekkende gebeure van daardie noodlottige nag en die mees dramatiese hoofstukke van die verhoor op só ’n manier ineen dat dit soos ’n spanningsverhaal lees. Tussendeur dié boeiende vertelling is uittreksels uit onderhoude wat Fitzpatrick met van die betrokkenes se naastes gevoer het.

Saam met al die menslike vertellings verskyn daar ook ’n interessante ontrafeling van die tegniese aspekte van die verhoor: Wat het die ballistiek, die getuienis oor die gille en Oscar se twee verwere uiteindelik vir hom beteken?

Dit word alles geïllustreer met treffende foto’s wat op die toneel geneem is en grafiese voorstellings.

Die Staat vs. Oscar is ’n fassinerende storie wat nie net al die legkaartstukke van die Oscar-raaisel in plek laat val nie, maar deurentyd aangryp en meesleur.

Oscar: An Accident Waiting To Happen is the all-exclusive inside story of a teenage daughter’s romance turned into every mother’s nightmare.

In September 2011, 24-year-old Oscar Pistorius was introduced to Samantha Taylor's family. The next 2.5 years would become a series of rollercoaster rides of emotional highs as young love blossomed, contrasted with dangerous lows, as Pistorius’s international celebrity, emotional fragility, broken promises and acts of recklessness consumed the family.

The London Olympic Games in 2012 was the lowest point. While the world watched Pistorius making history as the first disabled athlete to compete against the likes of Usain Bolt, behind the scenes the weeping Paralympian was on the phone to the Taylor family 24/7.

Promises by Pistorius to get psychological help never materialised. After one too many signs that his dangerous behaviour was endangering her daughter’s life, by late October 2012, mother Patricia Taylor laid down the law, telling Pistorius to stay away from her family forever. In her last conversation she warned: “Oscar, you have got to step out of your life... Something is going to go wrong. And it’s going to happen soon... Your life is like this terrible accident waiting to happen.”

Less than a year later Pistorius would shoot his new girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp four times with his 9mm Parabellum pistol.

Brilliantly researched with never before published behind-the-scenes detail, set against the killing that shocked the world, if you only read one book this year, read this one.

The sangomas say that when it is time to connect with your true calling, your true self, you must “dance to the beat of the drum”.

Returning to the land of her parents’ birth in 1994 – after making a name for herself as an actress on the British stage – Pamela Nomvete became a household name as Ntsiki Lukhele, “the bitch”, on Generations. But the mirage of luxury and success in which she lived was just that, a mirage. Behind closed doors she battled her husband’s infidelities, addiction and spiritual confusion.

Dancing To The Beat Of The Drum details the traumatic personal crisis Pamela went through as her success grew – a crisis which took everything she had worked for from her – and how she came to re-evaluate her priorities and reconnect with the spiritual side of her life – something she had long neglected.

Al is die Nobelpryswenner J.M. Coetzee wereldwyd as romanskrywer en letterkundige bekend, was daar nog geen omvattende biografie oor hom nie. Vir J.M. Coetzee: 'n Geskryfde Lewe het J.C. Kannemeyer, wat veral vir sy Afrikaanse literatuurgeskiedenis in twee dele asook verskeie biografiee van Afrikaanse skrywers bekend is, die samewerking van Coetzee self gehad.

Coetzee het onderhoude aan hom toegestaan, en Kannemeyer met familielede, vriende en kollegas in aanraking gebring. Coetzee het hom ook toegang tot 'n aansienlike aantal dokumente in sy private besit gegee. Voorts het Kannemeyer die geweldig omvattende literatuur oor Coetzee bestudeer en op inligting afgekom wat nie tevore ontgin is nie. Kannemeyer het hierdie biografie voor sy skielike heengaan op 25 Desember 2011 voltooi, en Michiel Heyns het dit uit Afrikaans in Engels vertaal. Die boek is 'n reis deur Coetzee se lewe, en begin met 'n ondersoek na sy geslagsregister. Daarna kom sy kinderjare in Kaapstad en Worcester onder die loep. Na 'n beskrywing van sy skooljare word sy loopbaan, van sy studentejare aan die Universiteit van Kaapstad en sy tyd as rekenaarprogrammeerder in Brittanje, uitgele. Hierna het hy sy doktorsgraad aan die Universiteit van Texas in Austin verwerf, en daarna was hy drie jaar lank 'n lektor aan die New Yorkse Staatsuniversiteit in Buffalo.

Sy deelname aan vreedsame versetoptrede teen die teenwoordigheid van die polisie op die Buffalo-kampus het daarop uitgeloop dat sy aansoek om 'n visum vir verdere verblyf in daardie land geweier is, en hy moes na sy geboorteland terugkeer. Met sy terugkeer in 1971 is Coetzee as lektor in Engels aan die Universiteit van Kaapstad aangestel, en vir die volgende dertig jaar het hy 'n vermaarde akademiese loopbaan geniet. Onder meer was hy besoekende hoogleraar aan universiteite in die Verenigde State, en het hy ook talle lesings en voorlesings by 'n groot verskeidenheid konferensies en instellings gelewer.

Sy eerste roman, Dusklands, het in 1974 verskyn, en is gevolg deur etlike romans wat hom as 'n vooraanstaande romanskrywer in Engels gevestig het. Vir die eerste keer openbaar hierdie biografie inligting oor 'n outeur wat nie net by uitsondering onderhoude aan joernaliste toestaan nie, maar ook baie swygsaam oor sy private lewe is. Die biograaf het 'n geleentheid gekry om talle wanopvattings wat steeds bestaan, reg te stel, en inligting te voorsien wat lig op die ontstaan en implikasies van die romans werp. Die biografie is in wese 'n onontbeerlike bron vir almal wat hulle met die werk van J.M. Coetzee bemoei.