Cul-de-Sac

Widowed after the death of her husband Klaas, a writer in her nineties moves into Berghof, a retirement home in Cape Town, and at first feels shut in her room like a captive, surrounded by the endless pain of the very old. The present frightens her, so her mind keeps drifting back, though memory brings its own shame, such as the spoiled chicken she was once sent to hand to a coloured child. Outings to concerts at the City Hall and a trip to Namibia falter as her body weakens. Slowly she reaches out to fellow residents, old friends visit, a walking frame she names StomJapie becomes a companion, and she starts writing again. Along the way she rethinks who she is in a changed country, and what Afrikaans still means to her.

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About the book

Form

Nonfiction

Length

208 pages in the original

Set in

South Africa

First published

2017 by Tafelberg

Author's age

95 when first published

ISBN

9780624084327 (original)

9780624087793 (Tafelberg, South Africa)