The Love Song of André P Brink by Leon de Kock

The Love Song of André P Brink (Hardcover Biography in Dust Jacket)

The First Biography of André P Brink, Drawn from Fifty-Four Years of the Novelist's Private Journals

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: The Love Song of André P Brink: A Biography
• Author: Leon de Kock
• Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers, Johannesburg & Cape Town
• Publication Date: 2019
• ISBN-13: 9781868427925
• Binding: Publisher's dark grey-green cloth boards with a printed, illustrated dust jacket.
• Physical Format: Octavo (8vo) hardcover, a substantial volume. No maps or plates.
• Language: English

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+)
• Exterior / Boards: The dark grey-green cloth boards are plain and unmarked on the front, with a clean spine. Corners and edges appear sharp, and the fore-edge and top edge look clean. The lower edges and corners are not fully visible.
• Interior: The title and copyright pages are clean, bright and unmarked. The page block shows slight tanning at the edges. No foxing, writing or markings are visible on the pages examined.
• The Dust Jacket: Present. The jacket carries a black-and-white portrait photograph with red and white titling, and is clean and glossy with no visible tears. It is protected in a durable archival-type plastic cover.

Synopsis & Historical Value

Published by Jonathan Ball in 2019, The Love Song of André P Brink is the first biography of the South African novelist, whose work was published in more than thirty languages during his lifetime. Leon de Kock draws on Brink's personal journals, kept over some fifty-four years.

The book follows Brink, who wrote in both Afrikaans and English, from his early career to his standing as one of the most prominent literary voices to criticise the apartheid state. His Kennis van die Aand (1973) was the first Afrikaans novel to be banned, and 'N droë wit seisoen (A Dry White Season) brought him international attention.

A review in The Books Page described the biography as scholarly and revealing, and well worth reading. It is a useful companion for collectors of South African literature, Afrikaans letters and writing from the apartheid era.

Author Profile: Leon de Kock

Leon de Kock is a critic, poet, translator and author at large. He was formerly a professor of literature at UNISA, the University of the Witwatersrand and Stellenbosch University.

His translation of Brink's love letters to Ingrid Jonker, Flame in the Snow, won the SALA award for literary translation into English and the English Academy's Sol Plaatje Prize for Translation. His other books include the novel Bad Sex (2011) and the poetry collections Bloodsong (1997), Gone to the Edges (2006) and Bodyhood (2010).

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