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Dalene Matthee Bosboeke #1
Circles in a Forest
Saul Barnard is a man with a self-imposed mission - to halt the wanton destruction of the Kynsna Forest, home of wild elephants and the fiercely independent families of woodcutters. For years he has protected the forest from intruders, and has developed a mystical kinship with the spirit of Old Foot, the majestic and indomitable bull elephant...When word goes round that Old Foot is on the rampage, Saul is propelled toward a terrible confrontation that will change his future forever. Originally published in Afrikaans in 1984.
302 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
255 people are currently reading
3545 people want to read
About the author
Dalene Matthee
17 books129 followersDalene Matthee (nee Scott) matriculated in 1957 and went on to study music at a conservatorium in Oudtshoorn as well as at the Holy Cross Covent in Graaff-Reinet.
Before gaining fame and wide acclaim for her first "forest novel", she also wrote stories for magazines as well as two popular novels - ’n Huis vir Nadia (A House for Nadia) (1982) and Petronella van Aarde, burgemeester (Petronella van Aarde, Mayor) (1983).
Kringe in ’n bos (Circles in a forest) (1984), a novel about the extermination of the elephants and the exploitation of the woodcutters of the Knysna forest, was an international success. Two other highly successful "forest novels" followed: Fiela se Kind (Fiela's Child) in 1985 and Moerbeibos (The Mulberry Forest) in 1987. Fiela's Child and Circles in a forest were filmed. She also won numerous literary prizes for her works.
After a short sickbed caused by heart failure, she died in Mossel Bay, South Africa. She was survived by her three daughters; her husband, Larius, died in 2003.
Before gaining fame and wide acclaim for her first "forest novel", she also wrote stories for magazines as well as two popular novels - ’n Huis vir Nadia (A House for Nadia) (1982) and Petronella van Aarde, burgemeester (Petronella van Aarde, Mayor) (1983).
Kringe in ’n bos (Circles in a forest) (1984), a novel about the extermination of the elephants and the exploitation of the woodcutters of the Knysna forest, was an international success. Two other highly successful "forest novels" followed: Fiela se Kind (Fiela's Child) in 1985 and Moerbeibos (The Mulberry Forest) in 1987. Fiela's Child and Circles in a forest were filmed. She also won numerous literary prizes for her works.
After a short sickbed caused by heart failure, she died in Mossel Bay, South Africa. She was survived by her three daughters; her husband, Larius, died in 2003.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews
July 11, 2020
This book is a rare gem in the world of literature, written with consummate skill and uncommon insight. Set in the late 1800s in South Africa, it reflects both timelessness and universality.
I'm not surprised that the book's blurb/synopsis fails to do the story justice, because this is truly a 1 + 1 > 2 writing that is difficult to capture the gist of. Yes, the main character, Saul Barnard, is disturbed by the wanton destruction of the Knysna Forest, it's wildlife, and its fiercely independent human inhabitants, but the story is so much more. Saul Barnard, a descendant of the first Dutch colonists in South Africa, subjected to English exploitation, is torn between his love of the Knysna Forest and its wildlife, the demands of his family, and a dramatically changing world. It's a coming of age story, an awakening to the connectedness of the natural world, an insightful and intimate depiction of a broad range of human emotions and proclivities (destructive and productive), and a parallel mystical kinship with a majestic wild elephant, all in all an engrossing story catching the reader up in the tension and playing with the reader's emotions. On the surface it is a simple enough story, but as a thoughtful reader is pulled in there are multiple layers to experience and contemplate.
To me this is the best form of eco-lit, immersing readers in the natural world without them necessarily realizing. As with this story, hopefully more will come to understand that it is the consequences of our actions that our children will have to live with.
Different passages will catch different readers attention, but these are some small bits that stood out for me:
“Were they right and was he wrong? he suddenly wonders. Is being slave, being dog, being nothing, being blind not perhaps the better way and you, in your stupidity, just did not realise it? Does it really matter where the blue buck’s gall is? Or where you believe it is? Yes, it matters! To believe a lie is to betray yourself. To walk past a truth because the path of the untruth is well trodden is just the same. Let him then be guilty of everything, but not that!”
“It took him four years to learn that life was a crooked circle. The woodcutter killed the Forest, the wood-buyer killed the woodcutter. Round and round and round you walked the crooked circle. Year in, year out. Where Harison or his men stopped them today, they felled tomorrow because the Government – who paid Harison to save the Forest – were putting on pressure from the west for more and more wood for railway lines, wood for jetties, wood for harbours, wood for the mines, wood for making wagons that had to take man and his possessions north! Wood for tables and chairs and cupboards and beds! Wood! Wood! Wood!”
“You won’t catch me that way. The Forest has been put at the mercy of man, and man, my dear Kate, is the most merciless creature on earth.”
“I do not agree with you. I know exceptions; you are one of them.”
“Don’t be fooled that easily; man is merciful as long as it suits him and as long as his mercy doesn’t stand between him and other things. I suspect the Government is weighing wood and gold on the same scale at the moment; gold will be heavier in the end because the diggers are demanding it, therefore the Government will be merciful and their mercy will mean that the diggers can destroy this Forest as they please. Lower down in the Big Forest, the woodcutters are destroying it because they have to live; a hungry stomach, hungry children, know no mercy for things they do not understand. De Regné is powerless against hungry stomachs and fortune-hunters, and if I stay here, the day will come when the picks and shovels and stamp-mills will catch up with me in every remote corner. I will hear their guns destroying the forest life and I will have no means of defence. I hear from Frank Jefferson that the same thing happened to many of the forests of Europe; miles and miles and miles of oak forests were felled by man, leaving naked earth. It took two thousand mature oak trees to build one fighting ship. So you see, Kate, for some or other reason, man always takes more than he needs or is entitled to… I have watched this Forest being wounded – I’m not staying to see it die.”
Whether he stays or not I leave for you to find out. What I will say is that the ending of this story brought tears and some solace to this world-weary old naturalist, especially for the majestic wild elephant as a symbol of all that sustains us.
I'm not surprised that the book's blurb/synopsis fails to do the story justice, because this is truly a 1 + 1 > 2 writing that is difficult to capture the gist of. Yes, the main character, Saul Barnard, is disturbed by the wanton destruction of the Knysna Forest, it's wildlife, and its fiercely independent human inhabitants, but the story is so much more. Saul Barnard, a descendant of the first Dutch colonists in South Africa, subjected to English exploitation, is torn between his love of the Knysna Forest and its wildlife, the demands of his family, and a dramatically changing world. It's a coming of age story, an awakening to the connectedness of the natural world, an insightful and intimate depiction of a broad range of human emotions and proclivities (destructive and productive), and a parallel mystical kinship with a majestic wild elephant, all in all an engrossing story catching the reader up in the tension and playing with the reader's emotions. On the surface it is a simple enough story, but as a thoughtful reader is pulled in there are multiple layers to experience and contemplate.
To me this is the best form of eco-lit, immersing readers in the natural world without them necessarily realizing. As with this story, hopefully more will come to understand that it is the consequences of our actions that our children will have to live with.
Different passages will catch different readers attention, but these are some small bits that stood out for me:
“Were they right and was he wrong? he suddenly wonders. Is being slave, being dog, being nothing, being blind not perhaps the better way and you, in your stupidity, just did not realise it? Does it really matter where the blue buck’s gall is? Or where you believe it is? Yes, it matters! To believe a lie is to betray yourself. To walk past a truth because the path of the untruth is well trodden is just the same. Let him then be guilty of everything, but not that!”
“It took him four years to learn that life was a crooked circle. The woodcutter killed the Forest, the wood-buyer killed the woodcutter. Round and round and round you walked the crooked circle. Year in, year out. Where Harison or his men stopped them today, they felled tomorrow because the Government – who paid Harison to save the Forest – were putting on pressure from the west for more and more wood for railway lines, wood for jetties, wood for harbours, wood for the mines, wood for making wagons that had to take man and his possessions north! Wood for tables and chairs and cupboards and beds! Wood! Wood! Wood!”
“You won’t catch me that way. The Forest has been put at the mercy of man, and man, my dear Kate, is the most merciless creature on earth.”
“I do not agree with you. I know exceptions; you are one of them.”
“Don’t be fooled that easily; man is merciful as long as it suits him and as long as his mercy doesn’t stand between him and other things. I suspect the Government is weighing wood and gold on the same scale at the moment; gold will be heavier in the end because the diggers are demanding it, therefore the Government will be merciful and their mercy will mean that the diggers can destroy this Forest as they please. Lower down in the Big Forest, the woodcutters are destroying it because they have to live; a hungry stomach, hungry children, know no mercy for things they do not understand. De Regné is powerless against hungry stomachs and fortune-hunters, and if I stay here, the day will come when the picks and shovels and stamp-mills will catch up with me in every remote corner. I will hear their guns destroying the forest life and I will have no means of defence. I hear from Frank Jefferson that the same thing happened to many of the forests of Europe; miles and miles and miles of oak forests were felled by man, leaving naked earth. It took two thousand mature oak trees to build one fighting ship. So you see, Kate, for some or other reason, man always takes more than he needs or is entitled to… I have watched this Forest being wounded – I’m not staying to see it die.”
Whether he stays or not I leave for you to find out. What I will say is that the ending of this story brought tears and some solace to this world-weary old naturalist, especially for the majestic wild elephant as a symbol of all that sustains us.
August 25, 2017
Dit maak nie saak hoeveel keer ek dié boek lees nie (selfs al is dit meermale omdat ek dit as voorgeskrewe boek behandel), dit bly uitstekend, interessant en ontroerend. My suster het onlangs die saak knap opgesom: Dalene Matthee was dalk nie die koningin van skrywers nie, maar sy was die koningin van storievertellers. Sela.
Rereading (even because I use it as setwork with my students) does not exhaust this excellently told story.
Rereading (even because I use it as setwork with my students) does not exhaust this excellently told story.
June 27, 2020
27June2020 - Planning a re-read ... found article providing contemporary perspective. (No more travels in my life, but visiting Knysna would be on short list.)
https://www.knysnacharters.com/home/s...
***
7/12/17 - (There exists a video based on the book. I don't recommend it. What little I watched wasn't appealing. Video review noted differences in versions.)
***
Perhaps it s the loss of the woodcutting culture -- something from the book stuck within -- I need a re-immersion in the forest.
***
Wish I had not given away my copy. Definitely re-read class. One of those places and times on earth I would like to have experienced.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knysna-A...
This wiki article certainly could benefit from some indigenous people's perspective, or even that of the lowest class whites depicted by Matthee.
https://www.knysnacharters.com/home/s...
***
7/12/17 - (There exists a video based on the book. I don't recommend it. What little I watched wasn't appealing. Video review noted differences in versions.)
***
Perhaps it s the loss of the woodcutting culture -- something from the book stuck within -- I need a re-immersion in the forest.
***
Wish I had not given away my copy. Definitely re-read class. One of those places and times on earth I would like to have experienced.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knysna-A...
This wiki article certainly could benefit from some indigenous people's perspective, or even that of the lowest class whites depicted by Matthee.
August 2, 2021
The rainforest and the elephants, both endangered by destruction from ever-greedy exploiters, are, for me, the stars of this charming and poignant novel.
May 9, 2008
Besides the intricate human relationships one reads about in this book (which I would rate one up from Fiela's Child), one also gets to know African elephants and - most important of all - trees. If anything, one comes to realize what an absolute tragedy it is that trees are being stripped from this earth at a tremendous rate, and once they're down, there is nothing you can do to get them as tall and as beautiful again.
For those not living in South Africa, us South Africans are facing a major tragedy as far as trees go: New legislation is forcing us to take any tree down that is not indigenous. Some of the trees, e.g. the Jacarandas in Pretoria (soon to be called Tshwane), have been growing there for years. What is this country going to do without the shade they provide? Turn into another Sahara desert?
For those not living in South Africa, us South Africans are facing a major tragedy as far as trees go: New legislation is forcing us to take any tree down that is not indigenous. Some of the trees, e.g. the Jacarandas in Pretoria (soon to be called Tshwane), have been growing there for years. What is this country going to do without the shade they provide? Turn into another Sahara desert?
March 19, 2012
A great foreign language book, which a friend in South Africa sent me, to practice reading Afrikaans and, at the same time, learn something of the history and culture of the Afrikaners, or Boers. It is a powerful story set in 19th century South Africa. I found it very interesting and educational in learning the language and gaining an insight into this great culture and a country which I hope to visit someday. If you don't know Afrikaans, that's no reason not to read and enjoy this book, as it's also available in an English translation, Circles in a Forest.
July 2, 2011
Dalene Matthee has an incredible way of describing life in the Forest in South Africa in the 19th century (read also Fiela's Child)! I got sucked in with all the detail, I felt like I was living there. Although it was set over 100 years ago, many of the stories are relevant today. Not to mention the whole theme of struggle with one's self, others, nature, change, reality, myth, ... etc. Like others who have reviewed this book, I found it a little slow to start but later I did not want the story to end.
March 10, 2009
This affricaans language author from South Africa is excellent! Her works have obviously been translated into English, making her accessible not only to non-affricaans speakers in SA, but to the world anglophone community. Her stories are well told - I highly recommend this particular story, about the coming of age of a young man who wants to connect with the world beyond the enclosed forest and its families of the Knysna region along the south coast of SA. Wonderful!!
July 10, 2013
Hierdie boek was my eerste kennismaking met Dalene Mathee wat my al haar boeke laat koop het.
Sy het net 'n aanslag wat nie geëwenaar kan word nie, alhoewel sy as mentor opgetree het vir Annelie Botes. Dalene se "Kringe in 'n Bos" is 'n boek wat 'n mens gryp en nie los nie. Misterieus, werklik, histories korrek, geloofbaar in alle opsigte. Sy ken haar onderwerp. Haar vroeë dood was 'n groot slag vir die Afrikaanse leserswereld.
Sy het net 'n aanslag wat nie geëwenaar kan word nie, alhoewel sy as mentor opgetree het vir Annelie Botes. Dalene se "Kringe in 'n Bos" is 'n boek wat 'n mens gryp en nie los nie. Misterieus, werklik, histories korrek, geloofbaar in alle opsigte. Sy ken haar onderwerp. Haar vroeë dood was 'n groot slag vir die Afrikaanse leserswereld.
March 30, 2011
Read it in the original Afrikaans, of course. Haven't read the English translation yet so can't speak for that. But the original book is haunting, stayed with me, even years later. The descriptions of the Knysna forest and the people living there, were done with love and caring eyes.
November 3, 2014
Uitstaande gebruik van simboliek. Die deurlopende tema van kringe wat onderskeidelik die hede en die verlede aanmekaar bind tot 'n sikliese eenheid, is meesterlik voltrek en is dus 'n onontbeerlike leserservaring vir die Afrikaanse fynproewer.
May 18, 2010
This is yet another gorgeously crafted book by Dalene Matthe. Her characters are so believable because she is able to show every detail of how it feels to grow up in the forest. It took me a minute to orient myself to the era and the place which were foreign to me. But with her incredible descriptions and dialog I became a 19th century dutch wood cutter living in the forest in South Africa. I feel as if I know the forest inch by inch.
Her book describes the class struggle and the ecological disaster of the human greed. the dutch wood cutters know nothing else except cutting down the forest and being enslaved to the company store.
More and more people come to rape the forest taking ivory, gold and diamonds and leaving a gutted bleeding landscape behind along with the people who live there.
Her description of the thought processes that create this vicisous circle of poverty, slave labor and tradition help us understand now human beings become so entrenched in beliefs that they cannot change. She shows us how visionaries are punished for having new ideas and how human creativity, wisdom and intuition are mutilated by the small minded fear of those who recognize greatness and fear it.
Her book describes the class struggle and the ecological disaster of the human greed. the dutch wood cutters know nothing else except cutting down the forest and being enslaved to the company store.
More and more people come to rape the forest taking ivory, gold and diamonds and leaving a gutted bleeding landscape behind along with the people who live there.
Her description of the thought processes that create this vicisous circle of poverty, slave labor and tradition help us understand now human beings become so entrenched in beliefs that they cannot change. She shows us how visionaries are punished for having new ideas and how human creativity, wisdom and intuition are mutilated by the small minded fear of those who recognize greatness and fear it.
August 17, 2010
Saul Barnard comes from a long line of woodcutters in the Knysna forest of South Africa. Only Saul is different...he begins to question some of the lore and is accused of having his head in the clouds. He realizes what all the cutting is doing to the future of the forest, and he gets wise to the unscrupulous dealings of the wood-buyers in the village. But trying to make his family and relatives aware of what's happening labels him as a traitor. He wants to fight to save the forest and the elephants. In fact, he seems to have a strange understanding with one elephant in particulr, Old Foot. Years later he hears that the elephants have been on a rampage and he must go back. The storyline goes back and forth between the "present" day return to the forest and his experiences growing up to get to this point.
Although I've never actually been to the Knysna Forest, I feel as if I have - the descriptions are THAT good. I found myself really feeling for Saul with the emotional roller coaster and also for Old Foot and the elephants as their habitat was destroyed.
I definitely want to read this again - as I'm sure that there are events at the beginning that, knowing the end, I'll catch earlier.
Although I've never actually been to the Knysna Forest, I feel as if I have - the descriptions are THAT good. I found myself really feeling for Saul with the emotional roller coaster and also for Old Foot and the elephants as their habitat was destroyed.
I definitely want to read this again - as I'm sure that there are events at the beginning that, knowing the end, I'll catch earlier.
March 27, 2013
A wonderful piece of work, Dalene wove her whole story through the use of circles....you go from one to another and then the whole completion of the beginning forms another circle at the end of the book. She has done thorough research and although the book is translated from Afrikaans it reads as if English was the original language. The story is about the Knysna forest in the Cape, South Africa. It tells the story of the forest people and the elephants and how they interact with each other. It is a book that will make you hungry for more. Dalene only wrote a few books before she passed away. Another master piece is 'Fiela's child' - also a must read!
October 7, 2012
Probably one of the best books I have read, Dalene Matthee produced a book that, at times, has the beauty of Dickens yet the simple but elegant style of Steinbeck. A moving story written by a talented South African author. There are so many levels at which the reader can enjoy this little gem. I would like to read the Afrikaans version as the few lines of Afrikaans she writes are exquisite. I will definitely look for more of her books.
November 21, 2017
Dis rêgrig n besonderse boek. Een van die beste boeke wat ek gelees het
September 21, 2021
hierdie boek het my soveel emosies laat voel. die band wat saul en oupoot het, die liefde en woede wat hy teenoor die bos en die mense daar binne voel is so mooi geskryf dat jy saam met die karakter lag, huil, skree en jouself soek. saul wat vir homself opstaan en weet dat hy beter verdien maar ook dat hy verward is oor wat om te doen tref jou in jou eensame siel en jy word, nee jy is, saul barnard.
October 23, 2019
Now I see why this book is a classic. I really loved it. There were a couple of issues with the translation (it seemed a little stilted sometimes) but overall it was a really great book.
February 18, 2012
The description of a vanishing world of the forest, along with the plants, animals and people who inhabited it, is my favorite part of this book. The contrast between the classes and language groups is also fascinating.
My pen-pal from South Africa sent me the Afrikaans and English versions of this book, and I sent her a variety of books on Native Americans. Reading the two versions in parallel, along with a copy of Teach Yourself Afrikaans and Colloquial Afrikaans, I was able to get the hang of reading Mathhee's words in her original language. I'm inspired to try the same approach for improving my reading skills for French and Spanish.
My pen-pal from South Africa sent me the Afrikaans and English versions of this book, and I sent her a variety of books on Native Americans. Reading the two versions in parallel, along with a copy of Teach Yourself Afrikaans and Colloquial Afrikaans, I was able to get the hang of reading Mathhee's words in her original language. I'm inspired to try the same approach for improving my reading skills for French and Spanish.
October 5, 2011
I read this book once back in 1986 while I was walking through the forests where this takes place. I then read it again in 2008. The magic of the book is in the setting - colonial days in a forest on the southern tip of Africa where the elephants hide.
June 7, 2024
הספר הכי יפה שקראתי בחיים
December 20, 2020
A novel that highlights how uncontrolled human activity destroys all that is good about nature. Set in a forest in South Africa the woodcutters are struggling to make a living. Unfettered wood extraction is causing irreparable damage to the environment, something the government is trying to manage, but with little success. Some woodcutters have started shooting the native elephants for their ivory. This and the reduction of suitable habitat from timber extraction means that their population is declining. Against this backdrop gold is found in the local river leading to a gold rush with further disastrous consequences for the natural world.
The story is told through the eyes of one of the woodcutters as he grows up from his late childhood into his early adult life. From a young age he has a close affinity with the natural world. He starts questioning the damage that his family's business is doing to this leading to an ongoing family feud that remains unresolved for much of the story. He tries to make his own way in the world but is soon in conflict with others.
He discovers how differences in race, class and wealth translate into social injustice. He recognises this when he sees how his family are cheated by the timber merchants. He and they are treated as an underclass who do not have the same rights as the privileged few. The gold rush and the consequent damage done to the forest are the last straw. Determined to make some one pay he sets out to thwart a planned killing of the biggest and oldest elephant still living.
Well written with lovely descriptions of the native fauna and flora I quickly identified with the main character and his concerns. Although written 30 years ago and about an earlier era, these remain relevant to today's environmental worries. Destruction of forests continues, many "big game" species are threatened by extinction and humans' needs for ever more mineral and other natural resources means that mankind is in the midst of an environmental emergency. Whilst the novel ended on a positive note with some kind of resolution to the main character's conflicts this is far from the case with our relationship with nature.
The story is told through the eyes of one of the woodcutters as he grows up from his late childhood into his early adult life. From a young age he has a close affinity with the natural world. He starts questioning the damage that his family's business is doing to this leading to an ongoing family feud that remains unresolved for much of the story. He tries to make his own way in the world but is soon in conflict with others.
He discovers how differences in race, class and wealth translate into social injustice. He recognises this when he sees how his family are cheated by the timber merchants. He and they are treated as an underclass who do not have the same rights as the privileged few. The gold rush and the consequent damage done to the forest are the last straw. Determined to make some one pay he sets out to thwart a planned killing of the biggest and oldest elephant still living.
Well written with lovely descriptions of the native fauna and flora I quickly identified with the main character and his concerns. Although written 30 years ago and about an earlier era, these remain relevant to today's environmental worries. Destruction of forests continues, many "big game" species are threatened by extinction and humans' needs for ever more mineral and other natural resources means that mankind is in the midst of an environmental emergency. Whilst the novel ended on a positive note with some kind of resolution to the main character's conflicts this is far from the case with our relationship with nature.
June 15, 2022
Saul Barnard is deel van ‘n derde generasie houtkappers in die Knysna woude. Dis harde werk vir geen geld nie, gevaarlike werk te danke aan siektes en olifante, ondankbare werk aangesien die houtkappers as minder as mense gesien word deur die mense in die dorp. Min van die houtkappers kan lees en skryf en hulle werk hulle lywe moeg vir bietjie suiker, twak en meel. Die hoeveelheid goodfor wat hulle kry by die houtkopers raak al hoe meer en die houtkopers word net Ryker by die dag.
Saul is anders gebore. Hy dink met sy kop. Hy aanvaar nie al die stories, tradisies en misbruik net so nie, hy bevraagteken dinge. Dit maak die ander houtkappers ongemaklik en hulle verwerp hom stukkie vir stukkie. Die dag toe Saul sien dat die bloubokkie se gal nie in sy kop sit nie, weet hy niks gaan ooit weer dieselfde wees nie.
Saul weet hy moet uit, daar’s ‘n beter lewe daar buite. ‘n Lewe waar niemand af kyk na jou nie, ‘n lewe waar hy niemand iets skuld nie, ‘n lewe ver uit die bos uit, 'n lewe waar Kate is. Toe daar gerugte van goud in die bos die rondte doen, gebruik Saul alles in sy vermoë om eerste deel te wees van dit. Om hopelik te kry wat sy geboortereg is as iemand van die Bos. Om sy eie mense te help. Om te help keer dat die Bos verder vernietig word. Om uit te kom uit die Bos, moet hy weer teruggaan na die plek van sy geboorte, sy mense en die plek van Oupoot.
Saul is anders gebore. Hy dink met sy kop. Hy aanvaar nie al die stories, tradisies en misbruik net so nie, hy bevraagteken dinge. Dit maak die ander houtkappers ongemaklik en hulle verwerp hom stukkie vir stukkie. Die dag toe Saul sien dat die bloubokkie se gal nie in sy kop sit nie, weet hy niks gaan ooit weer dieselfde wees nie.
Saul weet hy moet uit, daar’s ‘n beter lewe daar buite. ‘n Lewe waar niemand af kyk na jou nie, ‘n lewe waar hy niemand iets skuld nie, ‘n lewe ver uit die bos uit, 'n lewe waar Kate is. Toe daar gerugte van goud in die bos die rondte doen, gebruik Saul alles in sy vermoë om eerste deel te wees van dit. Om hopelik te kry wat sy geboortereg is as iemand van die Bos. Om sy eie mense te help. Om te help keer dat die Bos verder vernietig word. Om uit te kom uit die Bos, moet hy weer teruggaan na die plek van sy geboorte, sy mense en die plek van Oupoot.
April 11, 2020
ספר נפלא! מזכיר לי את דרום אפריקה של ילדותי. ממליצה בחום !!!!
מס' ציטוטים שריגשו אותי:
"אל תקרא לי אדון עוד, מאסקה. זקן-רגל בחר לו לאח לו את האדם הלא נכון."
"לא ולא, אלא יפה בחר! בך בחר מפני שאדם אתה, אדון שאול. אדם שהלך אחר ראשו מפני שראשו היה גדול מראשינו שלנו כולנו. בשום פנים לא היה זקן-רגל בוחר לו פחדן לאח לו!"
"למה זה לא אמרת לי מה אתה אומר לעשות כשבאתי לשאול את הרובה?"
"כי קיוויתי שתבוא הנה ותמצא את אחיך האדם, את יוסף, שתשלים עמו קודם שתצא לך לדרכך."
עמ' 194-195.
חזקשאול וישב על-ידה ואמר לה: "קייט, יש דברים שאדם מיישב עם עצמו בקלות יתרה, ויש דברים שנדרשות לו שנים ליישבם. כשחפרנו פה קומץ החופרים ואני לבדנו, היו הימים ההם שמחים והמאושרים שבחיי. היה בכוחי לאלץ אותם לחטוב להם עצים יבשים למדורות, לימדתי אותם את ההבדל שבין קודו מסורטט ממין זכר ובין הנקבה, והכרזתי על הצביון שהוא בגדר צייד אסור, לכשתרצי ראיתי את עצמי כאילו מיניתי את עצמי לשומר היער, והיתה לי בזה הנאה ושמחה...."
עמ' 240.
מס' ציטוטים שריגשו אותי:
"אל תקרא לי אדון עוד, מאסקה. זקן-רגל בחר לו לאח לו את האדם הלא נכון."
"לא ולא, אלא יפה בחר! בך בחר מפני שאדם אתה, אדון שאול. אדם שהלך אחר ראשו מפני שראשו היה גדול מראשינו שלנו כולנו. בשום פנים לא היה זקן-רגל בוחר לו פחדן לאח לו!"
"למה זה לא אמרת לי מה אתה אומר לעשות כשבאתי לשאול את הרובה?"
"כי קיוויתי שתבוא הנה ותמצא את אחיך האדם, את יוסף, שתשלים עמו קודם שתצא לך לדרכך."
עמ' 194-195.
חזקשאול וישב על-ידה ואמר לה: "קייט, יש דברים שאדם מיישב עם עצמו בקלות יתרה, ויש דברים שנדרשות לו שנים ליישבם. כשחפרנו פה קומץ החופרים ואני לבדנו, היו הימים ההם שמחים והמאושרים שבחיי. היה בכוחי לאלץ אותם לחטוב להם עצים יבשים למדורות, לימדתי אותם את ההבדל שבין קודו מסורטט ממין זכר ובין הנקבה, והכרזתי על הצביון שהוא בגדר צייד אסור, לכשתרצי ראיתי את עצמי כאילו מיניתי את עצמי לשומר היער, והיתה לי בזה הנאה ושמחה...."
עמ' 240.
July 31, 2021
Ik had eerst moeite om erin te komen maar vond het boek beter worden en meer boeien hoe verder ik kwam. De wereld van de arme houthakkers in Zuid Afrika in de late 19e eeuwen, hun verhouding tot de Engelsen en hun verhouding tot de olifanten, de zoek naar goud en een beter leven... het is een vreemde wereld voor mij en juist daarom boeiend om er meer over te weten te komen.
September 2, 2020
It took him four years to learn that life was a crooked circle. The woodcutter killed the Forest, the wood-buyer killed the wood-cutter. Round and round and round you walked the crooked circle. Year in, year out.
One man, one elephant, one forest, one destiny.
March 9, 2026
Book title:
Author:
Extract:
The Dutch Woodmen are brazenly robbed by the English businessmen, who keep them in a sort of factory town way, where they own the businesses that have supplies that they need, so they keep them permanently in debt.
There's so many horrible human characters in this book:
"It was past halfday by the time they got back on the ground again. Then old Anro told them he had heard in the village that it was a man named Marais who was shooting.
"They say he's going to shoot a hundred."
"Why a hundred?" Saul asked. He could not understand it.
"For the tusks, of course," old Anro said. "It's far easier than cutting wood."
"How many bigfeet are there then in the Forest?"
"I don't know, probably hundreds. Perhaps a thousand. You heard your father say the Government wants them counted. Gmf! I suppose they think it's like chickens you can chick! chick! together and count! What does the Government know about bigfeet in any case?" "
Some Prince from Scotland had come to "shoot his elephant," was a story Saul's father told him:
"But the foreman, the one that always stayed near the Prince, told his father to shut up! His father said, it was easy for him to talk, it was not they that had to stay behind in the Forest with bigfeet full of anger! The man again told him to shut up. Then his father asked, and what about the dogs? They cannot go down there. But a stubborn Englishman is just like a horse and a horse kicks just like a horse, his father said. The dogs were supposed to be hunting dogs, imported and educated to the heel. His father told the foreman, it was not buck they were going to shoot-if the dogs went too, there would be trouble!
He and Maska moved downwind of the herd and there they went with the whole lot of them. Slowly and carefully because the Prince was right behind them. The rest were everywhere. And because they had no guns, it was agreed that they would fall flat when the shooting started. And things did not go too badly, the Prince and the foreman and the others kept up nicely. . But just as they came within shooting range of the elephants the bloody educated dogs buggered up everything and went for the elephants. Chaos broke out. Forty guns, from all directions, opened fire and two of the dogs fell dead; only the hand of the Lord over everything stopped the Prince from being killed too. The elephants, of course, were into the thicket and off. But when they looked to their right, two cows with a small calf between them were standing in a smaller clearing and you could hear nothing but guns being reloaded. The Prince took aim and fired; of the others, some just loaded their guns and passed them on to the Prince; the whole time the two cows walked slowly over the clearing keeping their bodies between the bullets and the calf. When the calf was safely into the underbush, his father came up and told the foreman what he thought of their shooting; they had not even shot the calf. And what about the cows? They must be wounded and full of lead. But the Prince was too tired to track down wounded cows and none of the others wanted to miss the party. The next morning three of the men went looking for the bloody spoor and followed it for a while, but gave it up again. . . . "
Sal goes to work for the Englishman who cheats his father. From listening to the conversations, his English improves and he understands how much the MacDonald hurts the woodcutters. He tries to make his father understand:
" . . . knows you're too scared to stand up to him. Pa should not have unloaded!"
"I had no choice."
"You did have a choice, Pa! It's MacDonald that would have been without a choice because without wood he can do nothing. Can't you understand that, Pa?"
"I would have lost my oxen as well."
"Pa..." His throat felt cramped with dismay. "Are you blind, Pa? Mr. MacDonald has only one enemy and that is Mr. Smith, the other wood-buyer in the village. The same applies to Mr. Smith. Their tactics are the same: see that the woodcutters never get out of debt. Allow them to clear the book and next time they'll take their wood to the other buyer, who will start a new page for them and keep them nailed to it for years to come. That is why each of them must strangle wood out of their woodcutters! We all belong to the wood-buyers in the village, Pa! Look what we look like-and they grow rich and fat and live in big white houses! What are we, Pa? We kill the Forest to feed them and in the end we'll die together with the Forest!"
"Did you want to see me go before the magistrate tomorrow? That shame come over me? Is that what you wanted?"
"I don't know, Pa-I just don't know any more." In his rage and desperation he kicked a piece of wood into the fire, making the sparks shoot up wildly. "All I know is that things cannot go on like this! Somewhere something is going to go too far wrong."
His father squatted down on the other side of the fire. "Times are bad everywhere. Jeremiah Eye tells me there are men from Deep Walls on their way, on foot, to where diamonds were discovered. They say it will take them months to get there."
"Mr. MacDonald doesn't look as if he is going through bad times, Pa."
Jozef also came and squatted down by the fire. "We must do as Fred Terblans and Jeremiah Eye do," he said, "We must shoot bigfeet. Gesina says her pa says MacDonald pays sixpence a pound for the tusks; you've just got to hide them under the wood on your wagon and unload them on the lagoon side of the shed. Harison's watching everybody, they say."
Yes, Saul's Brother Jozef is also working against him, the forest, and the elephants.
The day comes when Saul can't take MacDonald's abuse anymore, and he quits.
"He was still standing where the news had hit him when he saw MacDonald coming from the shed out of the corner of his eye, walking over the black, dust-trodden earth towards the forest-wagons with the debt-books in his hands
Saul acted without haste. He bent down, picked up and threw the heavy clod, hitting MacDonald between the shoulders so that the clod exploded into a thousand crumbs of dust against his back. He did not even look away when MacDonald staggered round
... "Who the hell did that?" MacDonald shouted, looking straight at him.
He did not answer, he just turned and walked into the shed. He bundled his few possessions into his jacket and put on his shoes.
When he finally turned round, MacDonald, Pearston and Jones stood like three sentries between him and the door, full of bravado. Maybe it was instinct that warned them that he was beyond fear or caring and stopped them from coming nearer. He had to walk up to them. He was a head taller than the tallest of them, his body strong and hardened by many years of handling wood, and with eyes that said: "Lay your hands on me today and I'll pull down this place on top of you."
"And where do you think you're going?" MacDonald said. "I'm asking you where you think you're going?"
"Wherever it pleases me."
Then Pearston tried. "Don't you dare be forward with us, Barnard!"
MacDonald was getting red in the face. "You'll stay here until Patterson's pan is found and until the Barnards' debt has been paid!"
"I owe you nothing and Patterson gave me the pan."
"You will give the pan back to me or I'll have you arrested!"
"The pan is mine. Patterson gave it to me."
"Where is it?"
"Where I've hidden it."
"What are you going to do with it?"
"Fry eggs in it."
"Don't try and be funny with me, boy!" MacDonald raised his fists. "I'll teach you to know your place! From the very first day you started work here, you have made trouble and I'm sick and tired of it! Put down your things and get on with your work!" "
Saul does not put his things down and from that day forward things are going to be his way no matter what it cost him.
Masca, the old black man who has been with Saul's family for decades, comes to him one day and tell him his father has died. This part makes me sad because it reminds me of my mom dying. I had a sister who worked hard to turn my mom against me because she was jealous. My mom died before we got things right between us:
". . . In the end he walked away, believing in his heart that he would go back one day and show Joram Barnard why he had had to do it. At times, when his thoughts went their own way, he saw himself standing in front of his father-not as a prodigal son full of repentance, but as one who came to say, "Here I am, Pa, look at me! Can you see now why I had to turn away? Not all woodcutters are wild and dirty and neither are their children. I have proved it! I had to prove it, Pa."
Now that gate would never open, for Joram Barnard had felled one tree too many.
He got up and walked back to Maska. "How did you know I was here?" he asked.
"I've known all these years that you're here. I've known where your shelter is since that first winter. I see you've made it bigger. Almost like a house."
"Since the first winter?" he asked, astounded.
"Yes. Your pa sent me to come see where you were, to see if everything was all right with you."
That was the last time Saul Barnard cried.
He did not cry at the funeral. There Jozef and Izak and Magdalena and old Anro cried. He stood aside, feeling guilty because he was not in shreds and tatters like them and cursed himself for coming. Only at Big Island did he find out that Jozef had not sent Maska to tell him; Maska took it upon himself because he believed it the proper thing to do.
He left straight after the funeral.
An hour later, northwest of Big Island, he came upon Old Foot slowly rocking in a broad ray of sunshine slanting through the trees, in the middle of a sled-path, hardly twenty paces from where Saul had stopped dead in his tracks. The wind was against him. His neck and every muscle in his body was ready to take flight or to climb, for the elephant must have got his scent and seen him. The next moment an old suspicion slowly returned: the first time he had seen that legendary animal was years ago when his mother had died. He remembered telling Jozef that the elephant must have known their ma had died and that that was why he did not chase him. this meeting also by chance? . . ."
" "Maybe I did not ask aright, maybe I did not ask you what my heart is asking..."
"That I could also have told you. You sound like a hen not knowing where to peck. Say what it is that's speaking in your heart."
"Can a bigfoot pick out a man and keep watching him? Not every day, but when something particular happens to that man?" "Your heart is still asking a thing your mouth is not asking!" "I have a feeling that Old Foot has been watching me for years now."
It appeared that his words startled Maska. He quickly put down his coffee-tin, turned to Saul and looked searchingly at him.
"Old Foot is watching you, you say?" There was something like awe in the old man suddenly. “For years now?”
"Maybe I'm imagining it all, Maska, but every time something happens, I find him somewhere in my way. The first time was when my mother died. In between, every time I've been in trouble. Earlier tonight I came across him on my way back to Millwood. The wind was against me, he saw me, but he just stood there.”
Maska kept staring at him as if it was the first time he was seeing him. "Then it is so," he whispered in awe.
"What?"
"That Old Foot is watching you-that you are his brother. You are the brother of the noblest bigfoot that ever walked this Forest. I will talk to Jozef and the others tomorrow. They must stop condemning you for walking with strangers and betraying your own people."
"I'm betraying no one, Maska!"
"Old Foot would never have chosen a traitor for his man-brother or he would have trampled you long ago, Master Saul." It was the first time the old man ever called him "Master."
The tiredness slowly seeps from his body while he waits for Maska to come with the food; it is as though everything is slowly coming to a standstill within him, leaving behind a feeling of deadness. No, he will not turn back. Life has played a last trick with him to get him to this point; only hours ago he still believed that he had come back to shoot Old Foot, now he knows that it is not so. . ."
"He went and sat with her again. "Kate, there are things a man settles for himself quite easily, others take years. When the handful of diggers and I were digging here alone, it was the happiest time of my life; I could make them cut deadwood for their fires, I could teach them the difference between a male and female bush-buck and declare the little blue buck forbidden game. In a way I imagined myself self-appointed keeper of the Forest and revelled in it. But things have changed too drastically now and the full flood is still to come No, Kate, where the Forest is concerned, I've decided I'm leaving."
"You're running away, Saul Barnard!"
"You won't catch me that way. The Forest has been put at the mercy of man, and man, my dear Kate, is the most merciless creature on earth."
"I do not agree with you. I know exceptions; you are one of them."
"Don't be fooled that easily; man is merciful as long as it suits him and as long as his mercy doesn't stand between him and other things. I suspect the Government is weighing wood and gold on the same scale at the moment; gold will be heavier in the end because the diggers are demanding it, therefore the Government will be merciful and their mercy will mean that the diggers can destroy this Forest as they please. Lower down in the Big Forest, the woodcutters are destroying it be-cause they have to live; a hungry stomach, hungry children, know no mercy for things they do not understand. De Regné is powerless against hungry stomachs and fortune-hunters, and if I stay here, the day will come when the picks and shovels and stamp-mills will catch up with me in every remote corner. I will hear their guns destroying the forest life and I will have no means of defence. I hear from Frank Jefferson that the same thing happened to many of the forests of Europe; miles and miles and miles of oak forests were felled by man, leaving naked earth. It took two thousand mature oak trees to build one fighting ship. So you see, Kate, for some or other reason, man always takes more than he needs or is entitled to... I have watched this Forest being wounded-I'm not staying to see it die."
She slowly ran her fingers over his face. "You are the most beautiful being I know, Saul Barnard," she said."
Takeaways and inspirations: this book is strange. The protagonist is a young Dutch man who Grieves for the death of the forest from over logging, and for the death of the elephant herds who were there first.
Also, the original people that lived in South Africa were not white people. And nothing is said about them.
Author:
Extract:
The Dutch Woodmen are brazenly robbed by the English businessmen, who keep them in a sort of factory town way, where they own the businesses that have supplies that they need, so they keep them permanently in debt.
There's so many horrible human characters in this book:
"It was past halfday by the time they got back on the ground again. Then old Anro told them he had heard in the village that it was a man named Marais who was shooting.
"They say he's going to shoot a hundred."
"Why a hundred?" Saul asked. He could not understand it.
"For the tusks, of course," old Anro said. "It's far easier than cutting wood."
"How many bigfeet are there then in the Forest?"
"I don't know, probably hundreds. Perhaps a thousand. You heard your father say the Government wants them counted. Gmf! I suppose they think it's like chickens you can chick! chick! together and count! What does the Government know about bigfeet in any case?" "
Some Prince from Scotland had come to "shoot his elephant," was a story Saul's father told him:
"But the foreman, the one that always stayed near the Prince, told his father to shut up! His father said, it was easy for him to talk, it was not they that had to stay behind in the Forest with bigfeet full of anger! The man again told him to shut up. Then his father asked, and what about the dogs? They cannot go down there. But a stubborn Englishman is just like a horse and a horse kicks just like a horse, his father said. The dogs were supposed to be hunting dogs, imported and educated to the heel. His father told the foreman, it was not buck they were going to shoot-if the dogs went too, there would be trouble!
He and Maska moved downwind of the herd and there they went with the whole lot of them. Slowly and carefully because the Prince was right behind them. The rest were everywhere. And because they had no guns, it was agreed that they would fall flat when the shooting started. And things did not go too badly, the Prince and the foreman and the others kept up nicely. . But just as they came within shooting range of the elephants the bloody educated dogs buggered up everything and went for the elephants. Chaos broke out. Forty guns, from all directions, opened fire and two of the dogs fell dead; only the hand of the Lord over everything stopped the Prince from being killed too. The elephants, of course, were into the thicket and off. But when they looked to their right, two cows with a small calf between them were standing in a smaller clearing and you could hear nothing but guns being reloaded. The Prince took aim and fired; of the others, some just loaded their guns and passed them on to the Prince; the whole time the two cows walked slowly over the clearing keeping their bodies between the bullets and the calf. When the calf was safely into the underbush, his father came up and told the foreman what he thought of their shooting; they had not even shot the calf. And what about the cows? They must be wounded and full of lead. But the Prince was too tired to track down wounded cows and none of the others wanted to miss the party. The next morning three of the men went looking for the bloody spoor and followed it for a while, but gave it up again. . . . "
Sal goes to work for the Englishman who cheats his father. From listening to the conversations, his English improves and he understands how much the MacDonald hurts the woodcutters. He tries to make his father understand:
" . . . knows you're too scared to stand up to him. Pa should not have unloaded!"
"I had no choice."
"You did have a choice, Pa! It's MacDonald that would have been without a choice because without wood he can do nothing. Can't you understand that, Pa?"
"I would have lost my oxen as well."
"Pa..." His throat felt cramped with dismay. "Are you blind, Pa? Mr. MacDonald has only one enemy and that is Mr. Smith, the other wood-buyer in the village. The same applies to Mr. Smith. Their tactics are the same: see that the woodcutters never get out of debt. Allow them to clear the book and next time they'll take their wood to the other buyer, who will start a new page for them and keep them nailed to it for years to come. That is why each of them must strangle wood out of their woodcutters! We all belong to the wood-buyers in the village, Pa! Look what we look like-and they grow rich and fat and live in big white houses! What are we, Pa? We kill the Forest to feed them and in the end we'll die together with the Forest!"
"Did you want to see me go before the magistrate tomorrow? That shame come over me? Is that what you wanted?"
"I don't know, Pa-I just don't know any more." In his rage and desperation he kicked a piece of wood into the fire, making the sparks shoot up wildly. "All I know is that things cannot go on like this! Somewhere something is going to go too far wrong."
His father squatted down on the other side of the fire. "Times are bad everywhere. Jeremiah Eye tells me there are men from Deep Walls on their way, on foot, to where diamonds were discovered. They say it will take them months to get there."
"Mr. MacDonald doesn't look as if he is going through bad times, Pa."
Jozef also came and squatted down by the fire. "We must do as Fred Terblans and Jeremiah Eye do," he said, "We must shoot bigfeet. Gesina says her pa says MacDonald pays sixpence a pound for the tusks; you've just got to hide them under the wood on your wagon and unload them on the lagoon side of the shed. Harison's watching everybody, they say."
Yes, Saul's Brother Jozef is also working against him, the forest, and the elephants.
The day comes when Saul can't take MacDonald's abuse anymore, and he quits.
"He was still standing where the news had hit him when he saw MacDonald coming from the shed out of the corner of his eye, walking over the black, dust-trodden earth towards the forest-wagons with the debt-books in his hands
Saul acted without haste. He bent down, picked up and threw the heavy clod, hitting MacDonald between the shoulders so that the clod exploded into a thousand crumbs of dust against his back. He did not even look away when MacDonald staggered round
... "Who the hell did that?" MacDonald shouted, looking straight at him.
He did not answer, he just turned and walked into the shed. He bundled his few possessions into his jacket and put on his shoes.
When he finally turned round, MacDonald, Pearston and Jones stood like three sentries between him and the door, full of bravado. Maybe it was instinct that warned them that he was beyond fear or caring and stopped them from coming nearer. He had to walk up to them. He was a head taller than the tallest of them, his body strong and hardened by many years of handling wood, and with eyes that said: "Lay your hands on me today and I'll pull down this place on top of you."
"And where do you think you're going?" MacDonald said. "I'm asking you where you think you're going?"
"Wherever it pleases me."
Then Pearston tried. "Don't you dare be forward with us, Barnard!"
MacDonald was getting red in the face. "You'll stay here until Patterson's pan is found and until the Barnards' debt has been paid!"
"I owe you nothing and Patterson gave me the pan."
"You will give the pan back to me or I'll have you arrested!"
"The pan is mine. Patterson gave it to me."
"Where is it?"
"Where I've hidden it."
"What are you going to do with it?"
"Fry eggs in it."
"Don't try and be funny with me, boy!" MacDonald raised his fists. "I'll teach you to know your place! From the very first day you started work here, you have made trouble and I'm sick and tired of it! Put down your things and get on with your work!" "
Saul does not put his things down and from that day forward things are going to be his way no matter what it cost him.
Masca, the old black man who has been with Saul's family for decades, comes to him one day and tell him his father has died. This part makes me sad because it reminds me of my mom dying. I had a sister who worked hard to turn my mom against me because she was jealous. My mom died before we got things right between us:
". . . In the end he walked away, believing in his heart that he would go back one day and show Joram Barnard why he had had to do it. At times, when his thoughts went their own way, he saw himself standing in front of his father-not as a prodigal son full of repentance, but as one who came to say, "Here I am, Pa, look at me! Can you see now why I had to turn away? Not all woodcutters are wild and dirty and neither are their children. I have proved it! I had to prove it, Pa."
Now that gate would never open, for Joram Barnard had felled one tree too many.
He got up and walked back to Maska. "How did you know I was here?" he asked.
"I've known all these years that you're here. I've known where your shelter is since that first winter. I see you've made it bigger. Almost like a house."
"Since the first winter?" he asked, astounded.
"Yes. Your pa sent me to come see where you were, to see if everything was all right with you."
That was the last time Saul Barnard cried.
He did not cry at the funeral. There Jozef and Izak and Magdalena and old Anro cried. He stood aside, feeling guilty because he was not in shreds and tatters like them and cursed himself for coming. Only at Big Island did he find out that Jozef had not sent Maska to tell him; Maska took it upon himself because he believed it the proper thing to do.
He left straight after the funeral.
An hour later, northwest of Big Island, he came upon Old Foot slowly rocking in a broad ray of sunshine slanting through the trees, in the middle of a sled-path, hardly twenty paces from where Saul had stopped dead in his tracks. The wind was against him. His neck and every muscle in his body was ready to take flight or to climb, for the elephant must have got his scent and seen him. The next moment an old suspicion slowly returned: the first time he had seen that legendary animal was years ago when his mother had died. He remembered telling Jozef that the elephant must have known their ma had died and that that was why he did not chase him. this meeting also by chance? . . ."
" "Maybe I did not ask aright, maybe I did not ask you what my heart is asking..."
"That I could also have told you. You sound like a hen not knowing where to peck. Say what it is that's speaking in your heart."
"Can a bigfoot pick out a man and keep watching him? Not every day, but when something particular happens to that man?" "Your heart is still asking a thing your mouth is not asking!" "I have a feeling that Old Foot has been watching me for years now."
It appeared that his words startled Maska. He quickly put down his coffee-tin, turned to Saul and looked searchingly at him.
"Old Foot is watching you, you say?" There was something like awe in the old man suddenly. “For years now?”
"Maybe I'm imagining it all, Maska, but every time something happens, I find him somewhere in my way. The first time was when my mother died. In between, every time I've been in trouble. Earlier tonight I came across him on my way back to Millwood. The wind was against me, he saw me, but he just stood there.”
Maska kept staring at him as if it was the first time he was seeing him. "Then it is so," he whispered in awe.
"What?"
"That Old Foot is watching you-that you are his brother. You are the brother of the noblest bigfoot that ever walked this Forest. I will talk to Jozef and the others tomorrow. They must stop condemning you for walking with strangers and betraying your own people."
"I'm betraying no one, Maska!"
"Old Foot would never have chosen a traitor for his man-brother or he would have trampled you long ago, Master Saul." It was the first time the old man ever called him "Master."
The tiredness slowly seeps from his body while he waits for Maska to come with the food; it is as though everything is slowly coming to a standstill within him, leaving behind a feeling of deadness. No, he will not turn back. Life has played a last trick with him to get him to this point; only hours ago he still believed that he had come back to shoot Old Foot, now he knows that it is not so. . ."
"He went and sat with her again. "Kate, there are things a man settles for himself quite easily, others take years. When the handful of diggers and I were digging here alone, it was the happiest time of my life; I could make them cut deadwood for their fires, I could teach them the difference between a male and female bush-buck and declare the little blue buck forbidden game. In a way I imagined myself self-appointed keeper of the Forest and revelled in it. But things have changed too drastically now and the full flood is still to come No, Kate, where the Forest is concerned, I've decided I'm leaving."
"You're running away, Saul Barnard!"
"You won't catch me that way. The Forest has been put at the mercy of man, and man, my dear Kate, is the most merciless creature on earth."
"I do not agree with you. I know exceptions; you are one of them."
"Don't be fooled that easily; man is merciful as long as it suits him and as long as his mercy doesn't stand between him and other things. I suspect the Government is weighing wood and gold on the same scale at the moment; gold will be heavier in the end because the diggers are demanding it, therefore the Government will be merciful and their mercy will mean that the diggers can destroy this Forest as they please. Lower down in the Big Forest, the woodcutters are destroying it be-cause they have to live; a hungry stomach, hungry children, know no mercy for things they do not understand. De Regné is powerless against hungry stomachs and fortune-hunters, and if I stay here, the day will come when the picks and shovels and stamp-mills will catch up with me in every remote corner. I will hear their guns destroying the forest life and I will have no means of defence. I hear from Frank Jefferson that the same thing happened to many of the forests of Europe; miles and miles and miles of oak forests were felled by man, leaving naked earth. It took two thousand mature oak trees to build one fighting ship. So you see, Kate, for some or other reason, man always takes more than he needs or is entitled to... I have watched this Forest being wounded-I'm not staying to see it die."
She slowly ran her fingers over his face. "You are the most beautiful being I know, Saul Barnard," she said."
Takeaways and inspirations: this book is strange. The protagonist is a young Dutch man who Grieves for the death of the forest from over logging, and for the death of the elephant herds who were there first.
Also, the original people that lived in South Africa were not white people. And nothing is said about them.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 10, 2026
Excellent story!
July 17, 2018
Really good. I love her books
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