DAARDIE LEWE, Karel Schoeman

843pp., b/w & colour illus., hardback, d.w., Protea, Pretoria, 2026

ISBN: 9781485315674

In this literary biography on South African novelist, historian and translator Karel Schoeman (1939-2017) Ria Winters draws on new archival sources, newspaper articles and personal correspondence, situating his life and work within South African history. She examines his books and autobiographical writing, and illuminates the years after the publication of Die laate Afrikaanse boek (2002). The book includes photographs, comprehensive endnotes, and a bibliography of primary and secondary sources.

Ria Winters is a Dutch historian affiliated with the University of Amsterdam. Her interest in Schoeman’s work, as well as in the Afrikaans language and literature, began with her correspondence with him between April 2014 and May 2017.  Daardie lewe is Winters’s second book on Schoeman. The first was Reise met Schoeman: In die voetspore van die skrywer (2020). She lives in Amersfoort.