212pp., paperback, Cape Town, 2019
First published in Afrikaans in 2017 as Spertyd.
The third part of author Elsa Joubert's autobiography, completed in her 95th year, in which she writes about life after the death of her husband. Originally published in 2017 in Afrikaans as "Spertyd"
"Seldom has childhood been relived with such clarity, seldom have the humiliations of old age been so nakedly laid open. A moving farewell from one of our great writers." JM Coetzee
"Full of humour, irony and compassion." Jean Meiring
Elsa Joubert was born in 1922. In 1963 her first novel, Ons wag op die kaptein, was awarded the Eugène Marais prize. Die swerfjare van Poppie Nongena (The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena) was awarded the WA Hofmeyer, CNA and Louis Luyt prizes. Her novel, Die reise van Isobelle (1995), was awarded the Hertzog Prize, and Reisiger (2011) won the University of Johannesburg Literary Prize, the Recht Malan Prize and the Louis Hiemstra Prize.