Gripping tale with historical backdrop
THE book grabs your interest right from the start, with the author using a unique method to tell his tale: scenes shift from the Turffontein Boer War concentration camp in the early part of the last century, through various generations well over 100 years later.
Readers are introduced to a variety of characters, including Sara van Niekerk, her husband, Abraham, and grandson, Zweig, who, because of apartheid laws, fled the country with his lover to marry in England.
Zweig returns to South Africa to deliver a lecture on architecture – he has a worldwide reputation as an architect – and books into the hotel May Villa, run by a variety of unforgettable characters who readers will easily relate to.
The vibrant city of Johannesburg pulses throughout the book, with its amazing peoples, its crime, its good times and bad and the author cleverly weaves historical occurrences in the City of Gold during the period.
Kalmer is an award-winning playwright and novelist who has so far completed six works of fiction and 23 plays.
His novel En die Lekkerste Deel van Dood Wees was runnerup in the 2007 Sanlam/Insig Groot Roman competition while Briewe aan ’n Rooi Dak won the Anglo-Gold Aardklop award for best new drama in 2001. The drama The Bram Fischer Waltz won the Adelaide Tambo Award for Human Rights in the Arts.
The Saturday Dispatch managed a short interview with Johannesburg-based Kalmer.
SD: Was originally written in Afrikaans and then translated into English?
HK: Yes, it was originally published in Afrikaans but so many people who wanted to read it don’t read Afrikaans well enough or at all, so I translated it and it was edited by Michael Titlestadt.
SD: Everything described about Johannesburg is so life-like. Was (or is) there such a place as May Villa, the hotel in the story?
HK: No, unfortunately not. If there was, I definitely would have checked into it.
SD: The main character of Zweig van Niekerk and his wife, and Bosman, etc, are they based on actual persons? Or only in your imagination?
HK: I suppose all characters are composites of people one knows and meets along the way but I would be hard-pushed to tell you which person inspired the various characters. I knew the characters well by the time I started writing about them. I made lists of what they eat, drink and wear and read – things that not necessarily ended up in the book, but helped [me] to guess how they would act in specific situations. Also, I suppose there is a little bit of me in each character.
DD: Are there any similar (ie historical) books set in and around Johannesburg or other South African cities, in the pipeline from you? What is your next book about?
HK: I don’t know any other city as well as I know Johannesburg so I don’t think I would be up to the task to write convincingly about another city. I was working on a book set in Johannesburg during the 1980s but I got side-tracked by another project that didn’t take place in Johannesburg. So I suppose I am working on two books right now. The one has over 50 000 words while the other one not even 10 000. I suspect the shorter book will be completed first. The one book is about being young and the other is about growing old. A Thousand Tales is recommended and there is no doubt admirers of Kalmer will look forward to the release of the two new books.