THE MAN WHO LOVED CROCODILE TAMERS, A LIBRARY TO FLEE and MY THIRTY-MINUTE BAR MITZVAH longlisted for the South African Sunday Times Literary Awards

We are delighted that THE MAN WHO LOVED CROCODILE TAMERS by Finuala Dowling and A LIBRARY TO FLEE by Etienne van Heerden (translated by Henrietta Rose-Innes), have been longlisted for the 2023 Sunday Times Literary Awards in South Africa, in the fiction category, while MY THIRTY-MINUTE BAR MITZVAH by Denis Hirson has been longlisted in the non-fiction category.

The Sunday Times Literary Awards are awarded annually to writers who are either South African citizens or residents, and the fiction prize goes to a novel of ‘rare imagination and style’ which is ‘so compelling as to become an enduring landmark of contemporary fiction’. Finuala Dowling’s last novel, OKAY OKAY OKAY, was also longlisted in 2021, and past winners include Blake Friedmann authors Marlene van Niekerk, Ivan Vladislavić and Zakes Mda. The non-fiction prize is awarded to a book that demonstrates ‘compassion, elegance of writing, and intellectual and moral integrity’, and has also been won by Blake Friedmann authors Ivan Vladislavić and the late Hugh Lewin.

Published by Kwela in March 2022, THE MAN WHO LOVED CROCODILE TAMERS is a daughter’s unforgettable portrait of a complex man. Gina knows hardly anything about her father apart from the fact that he was once engaged to Koringa, a crocodile tamer, and that he is buried in an unmarked grave. In between shifts at call centre, she works on a novel about him, in a narrative that is by turns enchanting, funny, and heartbreaking.

A LIBRARY TO FLEE, published by Tafelberg in September 2022, focuses on our dangerous, turbulent times: several stories are woven together while Cape Town’s mysterious crossbow killer prepares to strike again.

In MY THIRTY-MINUTE BAR MITZVAH, Denis Hirson looks back to his childhood in Johannesburg in the 1960s, to his relationship with his father, who was imprisoned for anti-Apartheid activism, and to his thirteenth birthday, when he visited his father in the car park of the prison. It was published by Jacana in South Africa in 2022, and will be published by Pushkin Press in the UK and US in 2024, with an audio edition from Tantor.

About Finuala Dowling

Photo: Simone Scholtz

Finuala Dowling is a prize-winning poet and novelist and an acclaimed poetry teacher. She lives in Kalk Bay, Cape Town.

Her first novel was WHAT POETS NEED, followed by FLYLEAF. HOME-MAKING FOR THE DOWN-AT-HEART won the M-Net Prize 2012 and was shortlisted for the University of Johannesburg Prize in the same year. Her novel THE FETCH won the 2016 Herman Charles Bosman prize for English fiction. Her novel OKAY OKAY OKAY was published in South Africa by Kwela in 2019, with her latest novel, THE MAN WHO LOVED CROCODILE TAMERS, following in 2022.

Finuala Dowling on Poetry International

Finuala Dowling on Facebook

About Etienne van Heerden

Photo: Roger Sedres

Etienne van Heerden is the author of 28 published books, published in 12 languages and the winner of many major South African prizes. Van Heerden is an alumnus of the University of Iowa’s prestigious International Writing Program and regularly teaches at universities in Europe. He has been writer-in-residence at the Leiden University in the Netherlands and the University of Antwerp in Belgium. His classic novel TOORBERG (ANCESTRAL VOICES) has recently been re-issued in Dutch by Aldo Manuzio.

Etienne van Heerden’s website

About Denis Hirson

Photo: Adine Sagalyn

Denis Hirson is a South African writer and lecturer now living in Paris. He is the author of seven books, almost all of them at the frontier between prose and poetry and concerned with the memory of South Africa at the time of apartheid. These include THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR TO AFRICA (David Philip), as well as, from Jacana: WE WALK STRAIGHT SO YOU BETTER GET OUT THE WAY, the best-selling I REMEMBER KING KONG (THE BOXER), the poetry collection GARDENING IN THE DARK; the novel THE DANCING AND THE DEATH ON LEMON STREET (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize, 2012) and WHITE SCARS, a lyrical meditation on reading and its significance in our lives, runner-up for the South African Sunday Times Alan Paton Non-Fiction Prize in 2007. His latest book, MY THIRTY-MINUTE BAR MITZVAH, was published by Jacana in South African in 2022, with Pushkin Press to publish in the UK and US in 2024.

About Henrietta Rose-Innes

Photo: Christine Fourie

Henrietta Rose-Innes is the author of the novels SHARK'S EGG (SA: Kwela 2000) and THE ROCK ALPHABET (SA: Kwela 2004) and a collection of short stories, HOMING, which features the 2008 Caine Prize winning story ‘Poison’ and the 2010 Willesden Prize runner-up, ‘Falling’. Her novel NINEVEH was published by Random House SA’s Umuzi imprint in 2011 and by Gallic Books in 2016, and her latest novel, GREEN LION, was published by Umuzi in 2015 and by Gallic Books in 2017.

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THE DANCING AND THE DEATH ON LEMON STREET shortlisted for Commonwealth Book Prize 2012

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THE DANCING AND THE DEATH ON LEMON STREET by Denis Hirson is one of several writers from around the world shortlisted for the prize. Regional winners will be announced on 22 May with the overall prize awarded at Hay Festival on 8 June.

A regional winner for each prize will be awarded in five regions: Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, Caribbean, and the Pacific.

For the full 2012 shortlist, click here and more info here.

THE DANCING AND THE DEATH ON LEMON STREET is published in South Africa by Jacana.

Praise for THE DANCING AND THE DEATH ON LEMON STREET:

'Lyrical, layered and mesmerising.' -- Troy Blacklaws, The Argus

'A perfectly focused snapshot of the early months of 1960.' -- Aly Verban, Cape Times

'An elegant bittersweet novel that leaves its readers sore and admiring altogether.' -- The Times

'The minutiae of life are beautifully captured…Hirson writes beautifully, and the story sweeps the reader along…More of a sour lemon-tinged microscope than rose-tinted spectacles. And all the better for it.' -- Margaret Von Klemperer, Witness

'Hirson...delivers a taut, well-told tale, tightly constructed and yet apparently following the random rhythms of human interaction...' -- Michiel Heyns, Sunday Times