Boendoe by Chris Barnard

Boendoe (First Edition, Second Printing in Dust Jacket)

A Hertzog Prize-Winning Author's Afrikaans Novel of Drought and Isolation on the Mozambique Border

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: Boendoe
• Author: Chris Barnard
• Publisher: Tafelberg, Kaapstad
• Publication Date: 1999
• ISBN-13: 9780624037804
• ISBN-10: 0624037800
• Edition Details: Eerste uitgawe (First Edition), 1999, Tweede druk (Second Printing), 1999.
• Binding: Publisher's tan cloth boards with illustrated dust jacket.
• Physical Format: Small octavo, roughly 210 x 140 mm, 216 pages. Line drawing of a baboon to the title page.
• Language: Afrikaans

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+)
• Exterior / Boards: The plain tan cloth boards are clean, with sharp corners and no visible marks. The page edges are white and clean. With the jacket removed, the boards show no fading, bumping or staining.
• Interior: The title page, copyright page and sampled text pages are clean and white, with no foxing, markings or creasing. The binding is tight.
• The Dust Jacket: Present. The illustrated dust jacket is glossy and intact, with a clean spine and covers and no visible tears or fading. It is protected in a durable archival-type plastic cover.

Synopsis & Historical Value

Boendoe, published by Tafelberg in Cape Town in 1999, is a novel by Chris Barnard set on the fluid border between South Africa and Mozambique, in a remote region long gripped by drought. Its central figure is Brand de la Rey, an environmental researcher living in isolation, while the surrounding community is overwhelmed by the hardship of the land.

The book has drawn scholarly attention for its treatment of isolation and environmental crisis, and for the liminal state in which its characters find themselves. It was later translated into English by Michiel Heyns as Bundu, and that edition was shortlisted for the 2013 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, a measure of the novel's lasting literary standing.

This copy is the first edition in the publisher's tan cloth with its illustrated jacket, a clean and well-preserved example of late-career Afrikaans fiction by one of the Sestigers generation.

Author Profile: Chris Barnard

Christian Johan (Chris) Barnard was born on 15 July 1939 in Mataffin, near Nelspruit, and died on 28 December 2015. He studied at the University of Pretoria and is associated with the Sestigers literary movement. He worked as a journalist and wrote novels, short stories, plays, and scripts for radio, film and television. He twice won the Hertzog Prize.

His best-known works include Mahala (1971), often regarded as an Afrikaans classic, the Danda youth novels, Moerland, and Oulap se blou (2008).

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