Product Description
He is the chieftain leader of the Khoikhoi, a nomadic people derogatorily called “Hottentot”’ by European colonists. She is a white woman left behind by Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama’s crew when they rounded Africa’s southern tip in 1498. Their romance is the core of this powerful novella.
According to Portuguese myth, Zeus turned Adamastor into the rocky cape of the South African peninsula. André Brink’s parable suggests that white Europeans have punished native Africans in the same way. With this novel, Brink takes us to the heart of the relationships that define South Africa’s
modern history.
“Peter Carey, Garcia Marquez, Solzhenitsyn: André Brink must be considered with that class of writer.” -Guardian
From the Back Cover
“The ships were like two great birds swimming toward us. And then they came ashore, their heads so overgrown with beards and mustaches you could hardly see their faces. They brought with them a woman. When I, T’kama, first cam upon her, she was naked, smooth, white, all alone. I called her Khois, woman.”
So begins the luminescent tale told by a young African tribal leader of his tormented love affair with a white woman left behind by Vasco da Gama’s sailors in 1498 when they sailed around the Cape of Good Hope. In this provocative fable, the acclaimed South African writer André Brink brings alive the story behind one of the great myths of the founding of his troubled land. Rich with magic, Cape of Storms is a work of mesmerizing beauty.
“Searing...A stunning introduction to [Brink’s] work”
-Publishers Weekly
“A delightful narrator, full of lust and wit and a profound understanding of what motivates men, both African and European”
-Philadelphia Inquirer
“His story is funny, ribald and sad, all at the same time.”-Arizona Republic
