THE HUNCHBACK MISSIONARY, a novel

296 pp., paperback, First English Language Edition, Johannesburg, 2014

First published in 1988 in Afrikaans as Missionaris. Translated by Elsa Joubert and Michael King.

A novel based on figures drawn from the Cape Town Church Archives. A young Dutch clerk comes to the Cape of Good Hope as a lay missionary in 1800.

"With piercing clarity and depth, this haunting novel imagines the struggles and surprising moments of grace encountered by a missionary to Africa." Claire Robertson, author of The Spiral House

Elsa Joubert (1922-2020) is the author of the novels Ons Wag Op die Kaptein (Eugène Marias Prize), Die Swerfjare van Poppie Nongena (W.A Hofmeyr Prize, the Louis Luyt Prize and the CNA Prize), translated into English by Joubert herself as The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena; Bonga (CNA Prize), and Die Reis van Isobelle (W.A. Hofmeyr Prize and Hertzog Prize). Her autobiography, Reisiger (2009), won the University of Johannesburg Prize, the Recht Malan Prize and the Louis Hiemstra Prize.