BUYS, 'n grensroman

431 pp., paperback, Cape Town, 2014

An historical novel, in Afrikaans, about Coenraad de Buys, a legend on the frontier of the Cape Colony in the late seventeen hundreds. Born in the Langkloof in 1761, he was one of a number of white people who sided with the Xhosa during the frontier wars against the Boers and then the British. A polygamist, a swindler, the bane of government, father to numerous children, he wandered around southern Africa. He died on the banks of the Limpopo in 1821.

"Briljant verbeel en verbeeld. Daar is niks skroomvalligs aan hierdie roman nie. Ek haal my hoed af vir wat Willem Anker hier regkry." Ingrid Winterbach

Buys was the recipient of the University of Johannesburg Prize, the WA Hofmeyr Prize, The kykNET Rapport Prize, the SALA K. Sello Duiker Memorial Literary Award, the Helgaard Steyn Prize and the Hertzog Prize.

Willem Anker's first novel, Siegfried (2007) won the University of Johannesburg Prize and the Jan Rabie/Rapport Prize. He teaches creative writing and Afrikaans literature at Stellenbosch University.