Readers’ Comments and Reviews

I felt the story so close and experienced it as if in a cloud, it completely enveloped me...

Nel

I thought long and hard about what, to me, is a good book. First of all I find reading a most pleasurable way to spend time, and I enjoy books from which I learn about other cultures, with descriptions of nature etc. Furthermore I like a good measure of suspense and some romance. SAND has it all. I was completely hooked from the first page and I seemed to become part of the book. The characters came to life and after each chapter I just wanted to read on and know what happened next. Fortunately SAND is a big book - many nights were very quiet in my home...

The last sentence is, It was only in another century that the children of his people ruled their own again. I hope we will be able to read about them too, as well as about the children of the Boers, the settlers and the other peoples. I have great expectations of a sequel.

Ineke

I finished the book last night....

It was amazing - the characters were so strong; I went from really disliking Catherine to admiring her and back to disliking her again all through the book. She could be such a cow! It’s difficult though to imagine living a life as hard as those early settlers, I’m very thankful I live in this day and age!

My only complaint? Well, what happens now?!! Did they get Dirk to come home? Did he eventually save Stephanie? How did the girls cope after the raid? I need to know what happens next. That’s how you know I enjoyed it, because I feel quite lost not continuing on with their life.

Helen

Historical saga set in the mid-nineteenth century and set in Cape Town and the Cape hinterland. A Dutch man and his wife arrive in Cape Town, ready to seek their fortune in a new land. Not a great literary work, but the parts I read read easily enough, but I only dipped into this. This is a self-published title with a singularly unappealing cover that does not convey anything of the content to the browser, so I doubt whether it will reach the intended audience.

JdB, selector Provincial Library

Liefde blom in dorre woestyn

Die Burger (30 Oktober 2004)

Dié boek is ’n romantiese epos in die tradisie van omvattende rags to riches -sages. Dit speel hom af in een van die mees onherbergsame landstreke van die suidelike helfte van Afrika: die Kalahari. Die helde en heldinne kom uit die milde Europa en moet vir hulself ’n lewe midde-in die genadelose omstandighede van die Gariep toe-eien. Sadler se taalgebruik en aanslag voorspel van die beginparagrawe van die boek watter weelderige sentimente in hierdie roman aangebied word:

Battered, the Dutch ship Vangalen faced the wind and shuddered into port. At the railings of her rolling deck two young men, friends, experienced the almost tangible presence of the Dark Continent each in his own way. Claes de Jonghe felt good. There, beyond that scarcely visible hulk of rock, lay his destiny. This was where he would build a future for himself and Catherine. A dynasty. For a fleeting moment his mood darkened as ghosts of the lies and deceit he had left behind intruded on his thoughts, but he shrugged them off. There had been no other way (bl. 1).

Claes de Jonghe (’n Protestant) is smoorverlief op die blonde blouoog-heldin Catherine (’n Rooms-Katoliek). Sy wil niks van hom weet nie, want sy is op sy boesemvriend, Baptiste (ook ’n Rooms-Katoliek), verlief. Maar oor Catherine voel Baptiste soos oor ’n suster. Om haar van sy nek af te kry en Catherine se erfporsie te beveilig beraam Baptiste ’n plan: Hulle kom na Afrika onder die dekmantel dat Baptiste en Catherine gaan trou, maar eers daar gekom, trou sy met Claes: net solank sy naby haar ware liefde, Baptiste, kan wees... So bevind die Hollanders hulle dan aan die suidpunt van Afrika gewapen met drie trekwaens en die hoop op ’n toekoms.

Die manne van die plaas vertrek op hul perde (met name soos Shirazi) om hul eiendom te beskerm, met die brawe vroue wat by die opstal agterbly en brood bak en kinders grootmaak. Die genadelose omgewing word effektief uitgebeeld om te wys hoe die hoofkarakters triomfeer in die opbou van hul klein koninkrykie.

Die ryke omgewing waarin die roman hom afspeel, lei tot boeiende gebeure en karakters. So leer ken ons die lewenstyl van die Korana-stam, die vindingrykheid van die Khoi en die oorlewingsgees van die Boesmans. Die grensoorloë word ook gebruik as narratiewe stu-element en die verskillende kapteins van die splintergroepies van die gebied word treffend en insigryk beskryf. Selfs die diamantstormloop in Kimberley word betrek as verhaallyn. Rassekwessies word ook aangeroer met jong liefde oor die kleurgrens heen. Die roman raak ook ’n bietjie stout met getroude vroue wat hul seksualiteit herontdek.

Dit is egter nie ’n gewone liefdesverhaal met Afrika as die agtergrond nie. Hoewel Sadler se styl baie sterk herinner aan die sensuele sinlikheid en luuks ingekleurde aanslag van ’n Jackie Collins of Danielle Steele, is dit ook duidelik dat sy omvattende navorsing gedoen het. Haar historiese akkuraatheid en waarnemingsvermoë vir boeiende detail laat hierdie roman uitstyg bo die schmaltz van ’n Hollywood Wives.

Sand is wel ligte leesstof, maar histories boeiend, en die styl is gemaklik en vloeiend. Liefhebbers van romantiese fiksie sal nie teleurgesteld wees nie. Soos wat Nancy Pirri op die agterplat sê: One of those big books we all love to read.

Renée Belcher

We travelled from Upington to Windhoek and I had the feeling I might meet Claes and Baptiste at any moment. At remote farms I thought of Catherine... When we visited the Ombini Bushman Settlement Kora and Rosa and of course !Xam came to mind - what an influence you as writer and story-teller have!

SAND indeed added an extra dimension to my very enjoyable tour.

Dutch Tourist

I ... find it fascinating. Having lived in the Northern Cape for 16 years I can appreciate it so much. You have a remarkable knowledge of the countryside and history.

Bill

I would think you’ve added something necessary and worthwhile to people’s understanding of that part of South Africa...

Ina