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False River
“You are too close to the water,” Paul whispered. “There are barbels in the mud. They will wake up if you step on them.”
When Paul and Dominique are sent to boarding schools in Natal, their idyllic childhood on a Free State farm is over. Their parents’ leftist politics has made life impossible in the local dorp school. Angry schoolboy Paul is a promising poet, his sister his confidant. But his literary awakening turns into a descent. He flees the oppression of South Africa, only to meet his death in London.
Dominique Botha’s poignant debut is an elegy to a rural existence and her brother – both now forever lost. The novel is based on true events.
When Paul and Dominique are sent to boarding schools in Natal, their idyllic childhood on a Free State farm is over. Their parents’ leftist politics has made life impossible in the local dorp school. Angry schoolboy Paul is a promising poet, his sister his confidant. But his literary awakening turns into a descent. He flees the oppression of South Africa, only to meet his death in London.
Dominique Botha’s poignant debut is an elegy to a rural existence and her brother – both now forever lost. The novel is based on true events.
208 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
April 5, 2017
BLURB
“You are too close to the water,” Paul whispered. “There are barbels in the mud. They will wake up if you step on them.”
When Paul and Dominique are sent to boarding schools in Natal, their idyllic childhood on a Free State farm is over. Their parents’ leftist politics has made life impossible in the local dorp school. Angry schoolboy Paul is a promising poet, his sister his confidant. But his literary awakening turns into a descent. He flees the oppression of South Africa, only to meet his death in London.
Dominique Botha’s poignant debut is an elegy to a rural existence and her brother – both now forever lost. The novel is based on true events.
COMMENTS
It is one of the most disturbing books to read. Emotional turmoil and intellectual retrospection play havoc on the mind. I wanted to read this book for several reasons, which I do not want to explain here in detail. My husband grew up in the same vicinity and often fished and swam in the False river as well. The community in which Dominique's life played out was also part of ours. Our political struggle was the same, but unlike hers, we were not so lucky to have a supporting family and we paid a much heavier price for our dissidents.
The family farm, Rietpan plays a major role in this autobiographical memoir/novel. It was the anchor for her and her brother Paul in everything that happened to them: from the enstrangement from local peer groups in the local school, to their school days in Natal where they also did not fit in among the English ; to the tumultuous time in Johannesburg, Cape Town and eventually for Paul, the army and England. It was always Rietpan which anchored them. The farm itself, as well as the daily activities on it, which was carried through generations of Bothas living there, defined them more than anything else they ever attempted. As much as they tried to get away, they could never manage to uproot themselves from its soil completely.
The problem I had with the book was that it was honest in many ways, but was restricted in the sense that she could not really explore the family dynamics more, due to her love and respect for her parents. As a true novel, and even by changing names to protect the family, the story could have been much deeper and even more honest than it was. But in its current form, it is one of the most beautiful renditions of a family in transition I have ever read. A truly brilliant book. The prose was outstanding. There was never a sentimentality attached to anything.
The story is a gentle, sad, subtly satirical, informative, well-written experience as a debut novel. The good news is that it is also available in English.
"My Traitorous Heart" by Rian Malan is similar to this book as far as the historical period is concerned. But the content of Fals River is presented with much more grace, nostalgia and gentle understanding of all the characters involved. The author is not trying to destroy anyone, or revenge herself. She rather manages to understand and love them all, warts and all.
Several well-known Afrikaans figures/authors in South African politics who were literary giants, and who were much much more actively protesting against the rigidity of Apartheid (Segregation) stem from the same region. Max Du Peez, Dot Serfontein and her daughter Antjie Krog, are just a few. They all have a personal connection with the False River.
Compared to them, this book is actually irrelevant since it is written so many years after the battle for freedom and democracy took place in which they played a pivotal role for change. But this book is more than that. It is a deeply moving and honest journey through heartbreak and tragedy of losing a brother who was brilliant but lost the plot and ultimately overdosed on drugs. She balances the sadness out with the vivid descriptions of the farm and their innocent, happy childhood spent there. In fact, Dominique's memories are so similar to my husband's they could have known each other, and they probably, unknowingly, do.
If the English translation captures the beautiful prose of the original Afrikaans book, this can be recommended as a must-read for everyone.
An excellent debut novel.
“You are too close to the water,” Paul whispered. “There are barbels in the mud. They will wake up if you step on them.”
When Paul and Dominique are sent to boarding schools in Natal, their idyllic childhood on a Free State farm is over. Their parents’ leftist politics has made life impossible in the local dorp school. Angry schoolboy Paul is a promising poet, his sister his confidant. But his literary awakening turns into a descent. He flees the oppression of South Africa, only to meet his death in London.
Dominique Botha’s poignant debut is an elegy to a rural existence and her brother – both now forever lost. The novel is based on true events.
COMMENTS
It is one of the most disturbing books to read. Emotional turmoil and intellectual retrospection play havoc on the mind. I wanted to read this book for several reasons, which I do not want to explain here in detail. My husband grew up in the same vicinity and often fished and swam in the False river as well. The community in which Dominique's life played out was also part of ours. Our political struggle was the same, but unlike hers, we were not so lucky to have a supporting family and we paid a much heavier price for our dissidents.
The family farm, Rietpan plays a major role in this autobiographical memoir/novel. It was the anchor for her and her brother Paul in everything that happened to them: from the enstrangement from local peer groups in the local school, to their school days in Natal where they also did not fit in among the English ; to the tumultuous time in Johannesburg, Cape Town and eventually for Paul, the army and England. It was always Rietpan which anchored them. The farm itself, as well as the daily activities on it, which was carried through generations of Bothas living there, defined them more than anything else they ever attempted. As much as they tried to get away, they could never manage to uproot themselves from its soil completely.
The problem I had with the book was that it was honest in many ways, but was restricted in the sense that she could not really explore the family dynamics more, due to her love and respect for her parents. As a true novel, and even by changing names to protect the family, the story could have been much deeper and even more honest than it was. But in its current form, it is one of the most beautiful renditions of a family in transition I have ever read. A truly brilliant book. The prose was outstanding. There was never a sentimentality attached to anything.
The story is a gentle, sad, subtly satirical, informative, well-written experience as a debut novel. The good news is that it is also available in English.
"My Traitorous Heart" by Rian Malan is similar to this book as far as the historical period is concerned. But the content of Fals River is presented with much more grace, nostalgia and gentle understanding of all the characters involved. The author is not trying to destroy anyone, or revenge herself. She rather manages to understand and love them all, warts and all.
Several well-known Afrikaans figures/authors in South African politics who were literary giants, and who were much much more actively protesting against the rigidity of Apartheid (Segregation) stem from the same region. Max Du Peez, Dot Serfontein and her daughter Antjie Krog, are just a few. They all have a personal connection with the False River.
Compared to them, this book is actually irrelevant since it is written so many years after the battle for freedom and democracy took place in which they played a pivotal role for change. But this book is more than that. It is a deeply moving and honest journey through heartbreak and tragedy of losing a brother who was brilliant but lost the plot and ultimately overdosed on drugs. She balances the sadness out with the vivid descriptions of the farm and their innocent, happy childhood spent there. In fact, Dominique's memories are so similar to my husband's they could have known each other, and they probably, unknowingly, do.
If the English translation captures the beautiful prose of the original Afrikaans book, this can be recommended as a must-read for everyone.
An excellent debut novel.
November 5, 2013
Dominique Botha's dense, gorgeous novel-memoir, dedicated to her parents, tells the growth and dissolution of her brother, Paul. Raised together on Rietpan, the Free State farm owned and inhabited by the Botha family for generations, Dominique and Paul explore childhood and adolescence together on wide-open farmland in a country of closed minds. The oldest of five children, these two carry the family legacy and the expectations of their parents most heavily. For Paul, the road out of Rietpan led to a deep existential despair. At age 27, he died of a drug overdose in London. False River reads in part as a mapping of that trajectory, but it is also a portrait of the relationship between a sister and her older brother, complete with petty cruelties, love and infinite longing.
Botha portrays herself as a soft-hearted child, barefoot and sunburnt but easily swayed. Paul marches ahead of her, winning prizes for his poetry at the local school, reading everything that comes to hand, learning independence the hard way. Soon Paul is sent off to a private English school in Natal, and Pa's greatest concern is that his son will forget his Afrikaner heritage. When Dominique follows her brother to attend a nearby girls' school, her loyalty to her ancestry is also tested, and the tension between English- and Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans is subtly disclosed through the snide comments of classmates.
But Rietpan is always on the horizon for Dominique and Paul both, as though each has an anchor sunk in the muddy pan that dries to a husk in summer, its floor covered in flopping fish. For Paul the farm has an earthy resonance that is at once of and beyond words: the ploughing of soil, the hard work of operating a tractor and caring for cattle. In some sense he is planted in Rietpan – it is the only solid ground he knows. For Dominique, who exists in a state of constant, submerged anxiety, Rietpan is merely home. She writes the details of preserving fruit and meat, of cleaning and maintaining and preparing, with a thoughtless familiarity that shows just how deep her roots go. Ouma's pantry shelves are “lined with aniseed rusks and preserved watermelon”, and at home, guinea fowl fillets are “cut with a thick seam of fat and laid head to toe in vats and layered in salt” for biltong. Even more telling is her encyclopaedic knowledge of the plants and animals that share her world, from English oaks, white stinkwoods and pepper trees to waterbuck hiding in the wag-'n-bietjies, and doves “swirl[ing] above the chimneys before oncoming storms”. The barbels and leguaans in the water inspire chilling mythologies for the children, and the smells, sights and tastes of rural life are evoked with great care and poetry. History lies thick on Rietpan, and Botha knows exactly how to sample that rich atmosphere and display it in all its poignant delicacy.
Botha blurs the line between biography and fiction with refreshing honesty, rather than claiming total recall of long-gone thoughts and conversations. At the same time, she draws out the history of the Viljoenskroon district and its place in the national context, referencing her parents' activism and the segregated categories of black and white still very much in force during her childhood. Young Dominique echoes her father's educated turns of phrase and political sentiment, and also takes correction from his belt. Pa is a hard man struggling to be fair in a nation wracked with inequality, and his efforts to remain strong, honest and decent have mixed effects on his children. His wife is sharp-minded with a head for business, but leaves much of the angst and discipline to her husband. As Dominique grows, her voices matures, and she retreats further and further into herself. She reads as a profoundly lonely narrator, following her brother's wild spoor scattered across the wilderness as he attends university, drops out, is forced into the army, attempts suicide, takes up welding and drugs and is gradually eaten up from the inside out. Botha assaults the fraught ideals of rigid masculinity, but they nevertheless possess the power to hurt her brother and everyone around him.
Paul Botha was a poet, and in writing him his sister has revealed herself as a poet too. This is not a hagiography. In some ways Paul comes across as a character in a Julian Barnes novel, like Adrian Finn in The Sense of an Ending: at first a precocious schoolboy intellectual, then increasingly worldly and mournful until inevitable, early death. But Botha has drawn him with scars and flaws intact, powerfully human. In that telling, she also embodies herself in fiction, telling the story again so that nothing may be forgotten. Finally, with her eye for context, history and human interaction and emotion, she writes us too, as a nation, holding up all of our wounds and contradictions for everyone to see.
Botha portrays herself as a soft-hearted child, barefoot and sunburnt but easily swayed. Paul marches ahead of her, winning prizes for his poetry at the local school, reading everything that comes to hand, learning independence the hard way. Soon Paul is sent off to a private English school in Natal, and Pa's greatest concern is that his son will forget his Afrikaner heritage. When Dominique follows her brother to attend a nearby girls' school, her loyalty to her ancestry is also tested, and the tension between English- and Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans is subtly disclosed through the snide comments of classmates.
But Rietpan is always on the horizon for Dominique and Paul both, as though each has an anchor sunk in the muddy pan that dries to a husk in summer, its floor covered in flopping fish. For Paul the farm has an earthy resonance that is at once of and beyond words: the ploughing of soil, the hard work of operating a tractor and caring for cattle. In some sense he is planted in Rietpan – it is the only solid ground he knows. For Dominique, who exists in a state of constant, submerged anxiety, Rietpan is merely home. She writes the details of preserving fruit and meat, of cleaning and maintaining and preparing, with a thoughtless familiarity that shows just how deep her roots go. Ouma's pantry shelves are “lined with aniseed rusks and preserved watermelon”, and at home, guinea fowl fillets are “cut with a thick seam of fat and laid head to toe in vats and layered in salt” for biltong. Even more telling is her encyclopaedic knowledge of the plants and animals that share her world, from English oaks, white stinkwoods and pepper trees to waterbuck hiding in the wag-'n-bietjies, and doves “swirl[ing] above the chimneys before oncoming storms”. The barbels and leguaans in the water inspire chilling mythologies for the children, and the smells, sights and tastes of rural life are evoked with great care and poetry. History lies thick on Rietpan, and Botha knows exactly how to sample that rich atmosphere and display it in all its poignant delicacy.
Botha blurs the line between biography and fiction with refreshing honesty, rather than claiming total recall of long-gone thoughts and conversations. At the same time, she draws out the history of the Viljoenskroon district and its place in the national context, referencing her parents' activism and the segregated categories of black and white still very much in force during her childhood. Young Dominique echoes her father's educated turns of phrase and political sentiment, and also takes correction from his belt. Pa is a hard man struggling to be fair in a nation wracked with inequality, and his efforts to remain strong, honest and decent have mixed effects on his children. His wife is sharp-minded with a head for business, but leaves much of the angst and discipline to her husband. As Dominique grows, her voices matures, and she retreats further and further into herself. She reads as a profoundly lonely narrator, following her brother's wild spoor scattered across the wilderness as he attends university, drops out, is forced into the army, attempts suicide, takes up welding and drugs and is gradually eaten up from the inside out. Botha assaults the fraught ideals of rigid masculinity, but they nevertheless possess the power to hurt her brother and everyone around him.
Paul Botha was a poet, and in writing him his sister has revealed herself as a poet too. This is not a hagiography. In some ways Paul comes across as a character in a Julian Barnes novel, like Adrian Finn in The Sense of an Ending: at first a precocious schoolboy intellectual, then increasingly worldly and mournful until inevitable, early death. But Botha has drawn him with scars and flaws intact, powerfully human. In that telling, she also embodies herself in fiction, telling the story again so that nothing may be forgotten. Finally, with her eye for context, history and human interaction and emotion, she writes us too, as a nation, holding up all of our wounds and contradictions for everyone to see.
October 31, 2016
Hulle g-klank kom op die tone in en maak die deur saggies toe, nie soos in Afrikaans waar die g's soos stoele oor 'n baksteenvloer gesleep word nie.
4.5 sterre. Valsrivier herinner my weer hoekom Afrikaans die taal van my hart is, Dominique Botha mag maar skryf. Die boek lees amper soos poësie, en ek het paragrawe oor en oor gelees. Die biografiese storie oor haar gesin en grootword in die Vrystaat word op 'n eerlike maar nie-dramatiese manier vertel. Daar is al vele boeke geskryf oor apartheid, maar dis die eerste een wat ek lees oor 'n wit, Afrikaanse gesin wat te links was vir die stelsel. Die boek is 'n elegie aan die skrywer se briljante maar opstandige broer. Die gedig aan die einde van die boek het my in trane gehad. Ek beveel hierdie boek ten sterkste aan as jy van Joan Hambidge, Andre P Brink en soortgelyke skrywers hou.
naas 'n windverwaaide skiereiland
agter torings witter as vars kryt
was 'n heks met 'n siele-inventaris
'n man met 'n kapbeitel
het my oopgevlek
gelem soos 'n lewende vis
die heks het my littetekens gestreel en gefluister
laat hom nou gaan
(ek het jou op verkeerde plekke gesoek)
October 4, 2013
Nadine Gordimer het eenmaal gese dat 'n mens moet skryf asof jy 'n weeskind is. Maritha van der Vyver het iets soortgelyks gese toe sy se met elke boek verloor jy 'n familielid. Die woorde het my deurgans bygebly tydens my lees van Valsrivier. Sonder om te skroom het Dominique haar storie vertel. Goed sy't wel gese haar familie verstaan, maar as ek Sandra, haar ma was of haar pa Andries, sou ek maar sukkel om met die beeld wat sy van my voorhou/skep/versin saam te leef. Daar was dus 'n sekere mate van ongemaklikheid in my lees van die boek. Te veel eerlikheid maak my bekommerd.
En dan is daar gedeeltes wat ek as geforseerd ervaar het. die onderonsie met die dokter het na my mening niks bygedra tot die verloop van die storie of karakter ontwikkeling nie, maar miskien moet seks seker maar holderdebolder bygesleep word, maak nie saak hoe nie.
Maar dan, soos 'n goue draad loop daar deur die boek haar verhouding met haar broer en dit word met soveel eerlikheid en intimiteit beskryf dat 'n mens snak na jou asem. Sy probeer nie haar broer verklaar nie, sy beleef hom net en dit maak die boek uitsonderlik en oor en oor die moeite werd om te lees.
So tenspyte van my besware Liewe Leser is die boek 'n uitsonderlike weergawe van die lewe van 'n brose jong man, geskryf met groot vaardigheid soos net 'n besondere suster kan.
En dan is daar gedeeltes wat ek as geforseerd ervaar het. die onderonsie met die dokter het na my mening niks bygedra tot die verloop van die storie of karakter ontwikkeling nie, maar miskien moet seks seker maar holderdebolder bygesleep word, maak nie saak hoe nie.
Maar dan, soos 'n goue draad loop daar deur die boek haar verhouding met haar broer en dit word met soveel eerlikheid en intimiteit beskryf dat 'n mens snak na jou asem. Sy probeer nie haar broer verklaar nie, sy beleef hom net en dit maak die boek uitsonderlik en oor en oor die moeite werd om te lees.
So tenspyte van my besware Liewe Leser is die boek 'n uitsonderlike weergawe van die lewe van 'n brose jong man, geskryf met groot vaardigheid soos net 'n besondere suster kan.
June 25, 2014
Perhaps it is the fact that I grew up on a farm and attended boarding school for 12 years, but I found this coming of age story absolutely riveting. It's descriptions of rural life and its objects are at once poetic and true. They pull you willingly into Botha's partly autobiographical world. But, for me, what really resonated was her description of her brother's political awakening and his alienation from the conservative society in which he had to live. His story ends in tragedy (no spoiler alert as this is pretty much given away on the dust jacket). This is one of the finalists for the Sunday Times Fiction award in one of the strongest fields ever assembled, including Claire Robertson's The Spiral House and Lauren Beukes' Shining Girls. Very hard to pick a winner.
August 28, 2013
Een van die beste boeke wat ek nog gelees het. Die afrikaans in hierdie boek leef!! Beelde word lewendig, 'n mens ruik die Vrystaat-rooigrond-stof. Ook beskikbaar as FALSE RIVER in Engels.
Paul en ek het op 'n stadium langs mekaar in die klas gesit. Dominique en ek het by dieselfde musiekonderwyseres musiek gehad. Maak hierdie boek baie spesiaal.
Uitstekend Dominique!!!! Hoop dat daar nog meer uit jou pen gaan vloei!
Paul en ek het op 'n stadium langs mekaar in die klas gesit. Dominique en ek het by dieselfde musiekonderwyseres musiek gehad. Maak hierdie boek baie spesiaal.
Uitstekend Dominique!!!! Hoop dat daar nog meer uit jou pen gaan vloei!
November 19, 2014
Dominique Botha se debuutroman is 'n kragtoer in Afrikaanse prosa.
Ek gaan nie die storielyn en karakters hier opsom nie, dit is reeds gedoen. Wat ek egter wil uitlig is die twee sake wat die grootste indruk op my gemaak het:
Paul Botha se politieke ontwaking en gepaardgaande vervreemding van die konserwatiewe gemeenskap waarbinne hy grootgeword het. Hierdie reis word op meesterlike wyse deur die oe van 'n suster, met wie hy 'n baie besonderse verhouding gehad het, weergegee. Sy verhaal in hartverskeurend.
Dan is hierdie roman geskryf in seker van die mooiste Afrikaans wat ek nog ooit gelees het! Landskappe word lewend, aktiwiteite op die plaas word so beskryf dat dit die leser terugvoer na 'n tyd vergete, die pyn van beide Paul en Dominique was met tye vir my tasbaar.
'n Absolute meesterstuk
Ek gaan nie die storielyn en karakters hier opsom nie, dit is reeds gedoen. Wat ek egter wil uitlig is die twee sake wat die grootste indruk op my gemaak het:
Paul Botha se politieke ontwaking en gepaardgaande vervreemding van die konserwatiewe gemeenskap waarbinne hy grootgeword het. Hierdie reis word op meesterlike wyse deur die oe van 'n suster, met wie hy 'n baie besonderse verhouding gehad het, weergegee. Sy verhaal in hartverskeurend.
Dan is hierdie roman geskryf in seker van die mooiste Afrikaans wat ek nog ooit gelees het! Landskappe word lewend, aktiwiteite op die plaas word so beskryf dat dit die leser terugvoer na 'n tyd vergete, die pyn van beide Paul en Dominique was met tye vir my tasbaar.
'n Absolute meesterstuk
December 30, 2020
Het die boek met Desembervakansie in die Wildekus gelees. Snot en trane gehuil aan die einde. Een van die bestes in Afrikaans; wil nog die oorspronklike Engels lees.
November 17, 2013
'n Meesleurende verhaal wat my nog lank gaan bybly!
June 27, 2019
This is sheer poetry in prose form.
November 1, 2015
False River is described as an autobiographical novel, and I'd love to know just how much liberty was taken. I found some interviews with Botha (was trying to decide whether to shelve this as fiction or nonfiction), and she basically says that it's marketed as nonfiction because memory is fallible, but...well, the entire genre of memoir suffers from the same problem. So I'm curious.
The story (however true to life it may be) is told in lush prose. Botha asks the reader to do a lot of work here, dropping in characters with little to no explanation and placing snippets in Afrikaans without translation. It bothered me until it didn't, and I'm not certain when that shift came. Despite the fact that the plot hinges on an event, it feels very much like a sense novel rather than a plot one, which is to say that the specific events (up until the end) are only sort of the point—more important is how these characters are developing, adjusting. Dominique's brother is her brilliant superior, older and wiser and protective. But he also struggles in school and chafes against authority and drives himself to miserable depths. In another time and/or another place, he'd probably have been diagnosed with a host of learning disabilities and the like (whether or not that would have done any good...), but in rural South Africa during apartheid, with a conservative society...that wasn't going to happen. You can see just how much, and how quickly, Dominique is forced to grow up.
I am curious about the ending. The book ends just after Paul's death (not a spoiler if it's in the description...), which seems like such a strong tie-in to the way Paul sucks the air out of Dominique's world. That's not an indictment of his personality (or depiction here), but rather an observation of the strong personality he seems to have been. Having the book end with Paul's death reinforces the sense of him as an overwhelming force in her life, and it makes me wonder a great deal about the after.
The story (however true to life it may be) is told in lush prose. Botha asks the reader to do a lot of work here, dropping in characters with little to no explanation and placing snippets in Afrikaans without translation. It bothered me until it didn't, and I'm not certain when that shift came. Despite the fact that the plot hinges on an event, it feels very much like a sense novel rather than a plot one, which is to say that the specific events (up until the end) are only sort of the point—more important is how these characters are developing, adjusting. Dominique's brother is her brilliant superior, older and wiser and protective. But he also struggles in school and chafes against authority and drives himself to miserable depths. In another time and/or another place, he'd probably have been diagnosed with a host of learning disabilities and the like (whether or not that would have done any good...), but in rural South Africa during apartheid, with a conservative society...that wasn't going to happen. You can see just how much, and how quickly, Dominique is forced to grow up.
I am curious about the ending. The book ends just after Paul's death (not a spoiler if it's in the description...), which seems like such a strong tie-in to the way Paul sucks the air out of Dominique's world. That's not an indictment of his personality (or depiction here), but rather an observation of the strong personality he seems to have been. Having the book end with Paul's death reinforces the sense of him as an overwhelming force in her life, and it makes me wonder a great deal about the after.
February 13, 2014
This book is a rough ride - especially for ex pat South African such as I. Dominique brings back the cruelty and complex nature of living in Apartheid South Africa so clearly. Seeing her rural world through her childlike eyes resonated so deeply with me. As a child living in Apartheid South Africa you felt like something was terribly wrong, but had no power to change anything. Dominique's tells the story in a charming narrative voice that leaves you spellbound, and drew me rushing back to the memories of my homeland. To add to it all, she had a short time at a boarding school that I went to in Natal - all very close to the bone!
The tragedy of her brother also resonated deeply with me - I recently lost a wonderful and talented South African friend. He too found the constrictions of society to much to bear. All in all the book left me very gloomy and home sick, but I highly recommend it, it will probably be quite a different experience through non-South African eyes.
The tragedy of her brother also resonated deeply with me - I recently lost a wonderful and talented South African friend. He too found the constrictions of society to much to bear. All in all the book left me very gloomy and home sick, but I highly recommend it, it will probably be quite a different experience through non-South African eyes.
December 14, 2013
Beautifully written, heart wrenching, and so utterly South African, this is a wonderful triumph for Dominique Botha not just as a first time novelist, but also as a daughter and sister navigating memories, pain, family relations and literary integrity - and doing it so well.
January 20, 2015
A haunting story, can't get it out of my mind. Beautifully written, Dominique deserves all the accolades, she is talented
and giving a true and realistic account of growing up in SA during that era.
and giving a true and realistic account of growing up in SA during that era.
November 11, 2020
I loved this book! First Afrikaans book I read in some years and now I'm excited to get back into it. Such poetically beautiful words and a lovely story, entrenched in our South African and Afrikaner history.
Read
June 1, 2014Recommended for any one who grew up in small town rural South Africa.
October 25, 2014
This book is beautifully written and so evocative of the South African countryside it is as if one is there. Very much to be recommended.
February 14, 2018
Having grown up on a farm in South Africa and also attending boarding school (also in KwaZulu-Natal) in about the same era as the author, I related to this book on several levels. On the other hand, False River is a deeply personal story, which is beautifully told by Botha. The writing so lyrical that, while the story might egg you on to read quickly, the words compel you to slow down and savour them. It's the kind of book you can go back to time and again and, at every reading, you'll find another phrase to admire.
March 1, 2018
Novel based on true facts of her childhood, early adulthood and her brother's drug/alcohol induced slide to suicide.
Very disjointed writing. At times good visual descriptions and at other times very childlike. Mixed tenses and flitting through memories. So much unexplained South Africanism and Afrikaans. Felt it was a book written for South Africa only.
Glad I read it but was not enthused.
Very disjointed writing. At times good visual descriptions and at other times very childlike. Mixed tenses and flitting through memories. So much unexplained South Africanism and Afrikaans. Felt it was a book written for South Africa only.
Glad I read it but was not enthused.
October 28, 2020
Die oorbekrywing in die boek probeer oopmaak vir die lou warm storie lyn. Aan die begin is mens hoopvol vir goeie karakter ontwikkeling maar op die ou einde is daar nie veel te sê oor die karakters of hul verhoudings nie. Die einde was teleurgestellend en alhoewel die skrywer pragtige Afrikaanse woorde gebruik was dit oorweldigend.
June 9, 2020
Melancholy, evocative and beautifully written. I highly recommend this for any South African who lived through the troubled times of the 80's and early 90's. Thank you to the author for an unforgettable read.
August 28, 2025
it took a few pages to get into this but once I did, I really enjoyed it. Set in South Africa with many colloquial sayings with a few in Afrikaans that I think wouldn't be understood if the reader had not spent time there.
August 17, 2022
Lieflike skryfwerk, maar my verhouding met die storie was wisselvallig.
August 16, 2025
Ongelooflike mooi beskrywings. Digkuns in ’n roman.
January 10, 2026
so real and relatable, great writing thats easy to read- such skill
January 25, 2024
'n Ode aan Paul...
'n Suster se blik op haar gedeelde lewe met die klem op haar verhouding met haar diep gefolterde broer Paul.
'n Lieflike boek wat jou diep nostalgies laat.
'n Suster se blik op haar gedeelde lewe met die klem op haar verhouding met haar diep gefolterde broer Paul.
'n Lieflike boek wat jou diep nostalgies laat.
March 25, 2016
This was the second novel I read within days dealing with sensitive sisters relating the rebellious downfall of beloved older brothers, and the family dynamics that are therefore stretched to breaking point.
But the story is so much more than that. It is a richly woven semi-auobiography and most South Africans of a certain age will relate to the context. Dominique Botha's love of her rural Free State comes through so powerfully and lyrically that she does for the Free State what Marguerite Poland expresses for the E Cape. I will visit our farming friends in Viljoenskroon with new eyes; some of Botha's descriptions are so beautiful that I paused often to savour the poetry. The Botha parents and wider family are fully rounded and I was drawn to them: Pa, whimsical and irascible by turns and Ma dignified and sometimes outspokenly indignant - both expecting great things of their two eldest children; highly principled, eager for political change yet out of kilter with most of their right-wing white community. I thought back to an Afrikaans farming family in Bergville where I spent childhood holidays with a cast of black and white characters and heard grace said in High Dutch - it still holds powerful memories for me. I could also relate to the heartache and anger over Paul's self-destructive behaviour and waste of his literary talent and great intelligence.
The experiences Dominique has in Jhb while visiting Paul seemed out of character with her serenity, control and conservatism; otherwise, I enjoyed this novel very much indeed.
But the story is so much more than that. It is a richly woven semi-auobiography and most South Africans of a certain age will relate to the context. Dominique Botha's love of her rural Free State comes through so powerfully and lyrically that she does for the Free State what Marguerite Poland expresses for the E Cape. I will visit our farming friends in Viljoenskroon with new eyes; some of Botha's descriptions are so beautiful that I paused often to savour the poetry. The Botha parents and wider family are fully rounded and I was drawn to them: Pa, whimsical and irascible by turns and Ma dignified and sometimes outspokenly indignant - both expecting great things of their two eldest children; highly principled, eager for political change yet out of kilter with most of their right-wing white community. I thought back to an Afrikaans farming family in Bergville where I spent childhood holidays with a cast of black and white characters and heard grace said in High Dutch - it still holds powerful memories for me. I could also relate to the heartache and anger over Paul's self-destructive behaviour and waste of his literary talent and great intelligence.
The experiences Dominique has in Jhb while visiting Paul seemed out of character with her serenity, control and conservatism; otherwise, I enjoyed this novel very much indeed.
July 18, 2014
“You are too close to the water,” Paul whispered. “There are barbels in the mud. They will wake up if you step on them.”
He pushed past towards the sweet thorn shade.
I saw a dead carp with its eye rotted away. Finches were chattering in the reeds. The water in the pan stank.
“I don’t believe you.”
So begins the gripping memoir-novel False River, a tale of family, remembrance, pain, and growing up. The book is narrated by Dominique, and we meet her as a young girl on Rietpan, the family farm. Always with Dominique is her older brother, Paul, whom she idolises and adores.
It is not an easy task to say what False River is *about*. It is a novel filled to overflowing with the growth of the narrator-writer, Dominique, and her lifelong bond with Paul – even when he deserts her to lead a life of hedonism in his twenties. We travel with Dominique as she goes to boarding school in Natal, then university, with consistent returns to Rietpan throughout her formative years.
It is here, on Rietpan, where Botha carefully unfolds the many cloths of their rich family history. Although the whole story is not set here, the farm itself remains a locus of emotion and power throughout the novel. It is, by all rights, one of the most important characters in the novel. It is, undoubtedly, Botha’s lyrical prose that anthropomorphises Rietpan into the ageless custodian of the Botha family, and it is here where we see the true beauty of Dominique’s writing.
Read the rest of the review here: http://atlashouse.me/2014/07/18/2-fal...
He pushed past towards the sweet thorn shade.
I saw a dead carp with its eye rotted away. Finches were chattering in the reeds. The water in the pan stank.
“I don’t believe you.”
So begins the gripping memoir-novel False River, a tale of family, remembrance, pain, and growing up. The book is narrated by Dominique, and we meet her as a young girl on Rietpan, the family farm. Always with Dominique is her older brother, Paul, whom she idolises and adores.
It is not an easy task to say what False River is *about*. It is a novel filled to overflowing with the growth of the narrator-writer, Dominique, and her lifelong bond with Paul – even when he deserts her to lead a life of hedonism in his twenties. We travel with Dominique as she goes to boarding school in Natal, then university, with consistent returns to Rietpan throughout her formative years.
It is here, on Rietpan, where Botha carefully unfolds the many cloths of their rich family history. Although the whole story is not set here, the farm itself remains a locus of emotion and power throughout the novel. It is, by all rights, one of the most important characters in the novel. It is, undoubtedly, Botha’s lyrical prose that anthropomorphises Rietpan into the ageless custodian of the Botha family, and it is here where we see the true beauty of Dominique’s writing.
Read the rest of the review here: http://atlashouse.me/2014/07/18/2-fal...
February 11, 2019
A poignant debut novel set in apartheid South Africa
Dominique and her beloved brother’s idyllic Free State childhood ends when boarding school far away becomes their reality. Their parents’ political opinions, coupled with Paul’s rebellious nature, have made schooling in the dorp challenging. Dominique is her brother’s faithful confidant and the extremely close relationship between the siblings is palpable.
Paul finds a way to express his turbulent emotions in poetry. His literary awakening opens up new worlds for him and for a while his life seems to be on track. When events turn against him, he flees the oppression of South Africa and starts again in London. But this new hope soon turns to unavoidable tragedy…
Dominique Botha’s heartbreaking novel of belonging and loss is a courageous elegy to her brother as well as to a bygone way of life in a deeply divided South Africa.
Botha captures a particular place and time and explores the effects on her very real characters. Paul’s self-destructive spiral mirrors the birth-pains of the new democracy itself, as memories, political history and a cameo of rural life, are interwoven in an engrossing and convincing story.
Botha captures the haunting beauty of South Africa, in all its confusing contradictions. The universal themes of family loyalty, love, loss and new beginnings, make this a novel for everyone, wherever they are in the world.
Gigi
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
Dominique and her beloved brother’s idyllic Free State childhood ends when boarding school far away becomes their reality. Their parents’ political opinions, coupled with Paul’s rebellious nature, have made schooling in the dorp challenging. Dominique is her brother’s faithful confidant and the extremely close relationship between the siblings is palpable.
Paul finds a way to express his turbulent emotions in poetry. His literary awakening opens up new worlds for him and for a while his life seems to be on track. When events turn against him, he flees the oppression of South Africa and starts again in London. But this new hope soon turns to unavoidable tragedy…
Dominique Botha’s heartbreaking novel of belonging and loss is a courageous elegy to her brother as well as to a bygone way of life in a deeply divided South Africa.
Botha captures a particular place and time and explores the effects on her very real characters. Paul’s self-destructive spiral mirrors the birth-pains of the new democracy itself, as memories, political history and a cameo of rural life, are interwoven in an engrossing and convincing story.
Botha captures the haunting beauty of South Africa, in all its confusing contradictions. The universal themes of family loyalty, love, loss and new beginnings, make this a novel for everyone, wherever they are in the world.
Gigi
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
Read
September 3, 2014- Paul called it whispering blue. "The colour is so faint, it can't say its name out loud. -
- Paul threw a pebble that skimmed the glassy surface of the pan three times, then sank.
"Hey, you're disturbing the fish. What are you doing?" James asked.
"Casting pearls," Paul smiled. -
- "Never forget, Paul," Antjie called as we drove away, "a writer writes."
- "I had always hoped your father would treat me with the respect he showed his own mother." -
- Pa said when the Gods seek to punish you, they answer your prayers. -
- There is some truth in the wisdom of not learning a skill, because then you are doomed to practise it. -
- Paul threw a pebble that skimmed the glassy surface of the pan three times, then sank.
"Hey, you're disturbing the fish. What are you doing?" James asked.
"Casting pearls," Paul smiled. -
- "Never forget, Paul," Antjie called as we drove away, "a writer writes."
- "I had always hoped your father would treat me with the respect he showed his own mother." -
- Pa said when the Gods seek to punish you, they answer your prayers. -
- There is some truth in the wisdom of not learning a skill, because then you are doomed to practise it. -
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews