THE EXPEDITION TO THE BAOBAB TREE, translated from Afrikaans by J. M. Coetzee

113pp., paperback, Reprint, London, (1983) 2019.

Originally published in Afrikaans in 1981 as Die kremetartekspedisie.

"Stockenström’s imaginative interrogation of slavery is the richer for encompassing the appeal of preferment, of pleasurable sex, of gifts, while at the same time fully aware of its boundless pain and grief. Her highly literary language sets up a tension in relation to the lived experience of her first-person narrator, but it’s a measure of the book’s success that we accept this contrast between character and voice. JM Coetzee’s translation from the original Afrikaans is marvellous." Jane Housham, The Guardian

"Coetzee's tightly paced, restrained rendering of a complex text gives due weight to every word. It should ensure that Stockenström’s compelling picture of suffering and loss becomes a classic in English as well as Afrikaans." Times Literary Supplement

South African poet, novelist and dramatist Wilma Stockenström was born in 1933 in the village on Napier. She lives in Cape Town. She is the author of Van Vergetelheid en van Glans (Hertzog Prize for Poetry), Monsterverse (CNA, Louis Luyt and the Old Mutual Prize), and Abjater Wat so Lag (WA Hofmeyr and Hertzog Prize).