Published by Southern Books  / Human and Rousseau, 1988, two volumes- in-one, hardcover, 594 pages,  condition: new.

Herman Charles Bosman  (1905 - 1951) was widely regarded as South Africa's greatest short-story writer. He studied the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain and developed a style emphasizing the use of satire. His English-language works utilize primarily Afrikaner characters and highlight the many contradictions in Afrikaner society during the first half of the twentieth century.

What a wonderful collection. Beautiful mix of stories and the characters - especially the humorous ones - are so beautifully painted by the author. Oom Schalk is like the grandfather I never got to know. Exaggerator rather than liar. A dear old man. A lovely old man who loved the veld and loved the people and wrote so tenderly about them. And also about the dark side of things, of course. What a lovely journey into the mindset of people marginalised by their society. Lovely words and lovely characters and lovely themes. UPDATED: I just read it again more than a year later and it gets better and better each time.