Etienne van Heerden releases 24th Afrikaans book

UCT's Prof Etienne van Heerden has released his latest Afrikaans novel, 30 Nagte in Amsterdam. The novel (literal translation, "30 Nights in Amsterdam") is the multi-award-winning Van Heerden's 24th Afrikaans book and 11th novel. It tells the story of Henk de Melker, lowly museum assistant and writer of wafer-thin biographies of obscure historical figures - like a proposed piece on Vincent van Gogh's lesser-known sibling, Cornelius - who learns that his late aunt Zan has left him a house in Amsterdam. He visits the house, and through his encounters with a rogue's gallery of pickpockets, prostitutes and street musicians over 30 days in the city's byways, he learns more about himself and of the scandalous Zan; actress, activist, sensualist and long-gone outcast from the Eastern Cape dorpie of his childhood. "As he confronts Zan's past, he also looks differently at his own," notes Van Heerden.