Mafeking Road

By Herman Charles Bosman

Book Overview

Mafeking Road is the first published collection of Herman Charles Bosman's Oom Schalk Lourens stories.

This edition contains the original and unabridged text.

Set in the Groot Marico in South Africa the stories are told through the eyes of Oom Schalk. The stories are wonderfully crafted, funny, tragic, and with many twists and turns. Oom Schalk is at times the wise old man of the Bosveld, the village idiot, a racist, a thoughtful voice on race relations, a bumbling romantic and a skilled match-maker.

Oom Schalk gave Bosman the ability to craft stories that we love but where we can't escape the truth of South Africa's past.

The gems include:

Starlight on the VeldWillem Prinsloo's Peach BrandyIn the Withaak's ShadeOx-Waggons on TrekThe Music-MakerMarico ScandalMafeking RoadThe Love PotionMakapan's CavesYellow MoepelsBechuana InterludeBrown MambaDream by the Blue-GumsThe GramophoneThe ProphetDrieka and the MoonMampoerThe WidowVeld MaidenThe RooinekSplendours from Ramoutsa

These stories have become true South African classics and we don't doubt that you will fall in love with every one of them.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1479264067
• ISBN13: 9781479264063
• Release Date: December 2012
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 174 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Delight in an Almost Mythical World

As good as any of the gems crafted by Hemingway, Kipling or Saki, these short stories conjure up a bygone world with affection and irony. Hardship and tragedy are never far away in the Groot Marico, but Oom ("Uncle", an old Afrikaaner term of respect to a man ten or so years old than oneself) Schalk Lourens treats these subjects with tenderness and gentle wit. To the modern reader, the handling of relations between Boers, Africans and rooineks (the English) will jolt, but has the ring of authenticity. Not to be missed!

A gem of a find!

If you love irony, then this book is for you. Set in the African Transvaal during the Aparthied, Bosman weaves his magical storytelling style to hit the reader with irony in diverse forms. Dark and penetrating, without the rancour that is normally associated with such novels, Bosman discusses dangerous subjects with disguises of innocence. An awesome read!

First Rate Unknown South African Author

South Africa has produced a number of notable writers and Nobel Prize Winners:Athol Fugard, Zakes Mda, Andre Brinks, Coetze, Gordimer. Here is another first rate writer with a perspective unknown to almost every American reader: an Afrikaner writing about the Afrikans. This collection of short stories, written from a wise fool narrative perspective, has a style which is a cousin of the great Checkov stories about ordinary Russians. Together they present a vivid picture of a culture little understood but remarkable in its resillence, its ties to the soil, and unique existence in Africa and the world. Archipelago has again produced an elegant volume that should grace many a book shelf.