Unto Dust

by Lionel (editor) Bosman, Herman Charles) Abrahams

One thing that certain thoughtless people sometimes hint at about my stories is that nothing ever seems to happen in them. Then there is another kind of person who goes even further, and he says that the stories I tell are all stories that he has heard before, somewhere, long ago he can’t remember when, exactly, but somewhere at the back of his mind he knows that it is not a new story. I have heard that remark passed quite often which is not surprising, seeing that I really don’t know any new stories. But the funny part of it is that these very people will come around, say, ten years later, and ask me to tell them another story. And they will say, then, because of what they have learnt of life in between, that the older the better (Oom Schalk Lourens, The Selon’s Rose). This revised edition of Unto Dust gathers Oom Schalk’s last tales and concludes the sequence begun in Mafeking Road and continued in Seed-time and Harvest. It includes famous stories (Unto Dust, Funeral Earth,The Traitor’s Wife), two previously unpublished ones (Bush Telegraph and Tryst by the Vaal) and others previously uncollected and barely known. Vintage Bosman at his most masterly, written in an intense last period. Edited from original versions, with an introduction and notes on the texts.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, South Africa, Africa

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. Even though you really need to have a background in the history, language and culture for parts of it to make sense (I don't, so I spent a lot of time confused), it's still a pretty quick and easy read. There is something both deep and whimsical, and they were great stories to read. My particular favourites were "Two Brothers", "Peaches in the Sun" and "Old Transvaal Story".

[Derek Baldwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sublime short stories by South Africa's greatest writer bar none

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book in a small used bookstore in Johannesburg and I bought it because the stories were short enough to read while waiting for a coffee. The book surprised me. Some stories are very powerful and evoke a south africa of a very different time before apartheid, before there was a South Africa. The stories are influenced by o'henry. Nearly all have a slightly ironic ending. Sometimes it works very well. Since they all share a similar format it they use a little if you read too many in a row. For an American reader the similarities to the American frontier are hard to ignore which can be disquieting. Some also capture the decimation of the boer war and what it means to lose a war powerfully. Finding this book was a wonderful small surprise

[Ryan Monaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this is a fantastic and sharp-witted collection of short stories written by one of the foremost Afrikaner authors of the 20th century. Each of these stories offers an intimate snapshot of 'life in the veld' for turn of the century Afrikaners, a perspective that has become vilified in recent years. Personal favorites from the collection: Funeral Earth and the title piece, Unto Dust.