The Elusive Moth - Softcover

Winterbach, Ingrid

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0798145625 ISBN 13: 9780798145626

Publisher: NB Publishers, 2011

Synopsis

Karolina Ferreira, an entomologist, goes to a small Free State town to do research on the survival strategies of a rare moth species. During the day, Willie September, a natural healer, introduces Karolina to the mysteries of the drought-stricken veld. At night she is introduced and exposed to the town’s political intrigue and power games, while playing snooker, drinking whisky in the ladies bar, and dancing the tango.

This novel was published originally in Afrikaans under the title, Karolina Ferreira and is reworked and revised here by the author.

About this title

About the Author:

INGRID WINTERBACH was born in Johannesburg and studied at the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Stellenbosch. In the years following her studies, she was a teacher, a journalist at Die Burger, and for 13 years a lecturer in the Fine Arts Department of the University of Stellenbosch. After that, Ingrid was also a lecturer in Afrikaans and Dutch at the University of Natal. She has been writing and painting full time since 2002. Her first novel, Klaaglied vir Koos, was published in 1984 under the alias Lettie Viljoen. She published four more books under this name. In 1994 she was awarded both the M-Net and Ou Mutual Prize for her novel Karolina Ferreira. Buller se plan (1999) was the first novel to be published under the name Ingrid Winterbach. In 2004 Ingrid was awarded the Hertzog Prize for prose for Niggie. In 2007 her eighth novel, Die boek van toeval en toeverlaat, was awarded the M-Net Prize, WA Hofmeyer Prize and UJ Prize for creative writing.

Review:

". . . [A] moving book that doesn't feel overpowering, but nonetheless creeps into the reader's mind and haunts them in a subtle way. Poignant, shocking, and understated . . ."—The Mantle

"This text is, in all meanings of the word, sublime."—Die Burger

"An exquisite book, an essential voice."—Antjie Krog

"Heavy-handed and belabored, the novel carries its own thematic burdens on its back."—Kirkus Reviews

"Winterbach's clever, fascinating meditation on gender and power echoes societal flaws still present around the world, making the volume vital and timely."— Numéro Cinq

"The novel is part character study, part contemporary (when it was written, in the early 1990s) period-piece—of a South Africa in turmoil, a changing society in which old orders are shifting and new ones not yet established."—The Complete Review

"Winterbach ultimately navigates melancholy—not merely the deep feeling of sadness, but the inarticulacy that often accompanies such feeling. The looming cloud of an unknown and irredeemable future (like a door with broken hinge that cannot be closed) is projected on the characters. These characters are both harbingers of desire as well as bearers of their inability to have these desires met."—Music & Literature

"Winterbach deals with clear themes of life, love, and death, analyzed on a grand scale and shown in an equally grand evolutionary context. Her concern with her characters' places in the world is not frivolous, not simply a literary conceit chosen to allow her to give 'significance' to her story. In all her novels, she shows a total commitment to big ideas on a big scale and organizes them in such a way as to enhance the story, not overpower it."—Mary Whipple Reviews

About this edition

• Publisher: NB Publishers
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0798145625
• ISBN 13: 9780798145626
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192