THE WILDEST BEAUTY

347pp., paperback, Human & Rousseau, Cape Town, 2026

ISBN: 9780798185813

A historical novel that follows twins Danny and Charlie Marais from their peaceful Stellenbosch upbringing to the horrors of the First World War and the Battle of Delville Wood.

'An extraordinary work of fiction both in the depth of its creativity nd its imaginative scope ... It is compulsive reading, the characters are remarkable ... and the writing, well, the writing is superb.' Mike Nicol

Michiel Heyns’ novels include Each Mortal Thing, The Children’s Day, The Reluctant Passenger and The Typewriter’s Tale. He has thrice been awarded the Herman Charles Bosman Award for English Fiction, and his novel Lost Ground also won the Sunday Times Fiction Prize. He won the 2008 English Academy's Sol Plaatje Award for Translating as well as the South African Translators' Institute Award for a Literary Translation for his translation of Marlene van Niekerk's Agaat. He reviewed regularly for the Sunday Independent, for which he was awarded the English Academy's Pringle Prize for Reviewing for 2006 and again for 2010. He was Professor of English at the University of Stellenbosch.