Jacaranda in the Night, by Herman Charles Bosman (used)

In 1943, when Herman Charles Bosman arrived in Pietersburg as editor of the Zoutpansberg Review and Mining Journal, he realised that small-town life could yield to him a fresh field of exploration, comparable to that which the Marico had given him seventeen years before.

He soon saw beyond the outer physical features of the town to what went on below the surface. It was the people of Pietersburg, their foibles and to him strange convictions, that caught his attention.

These then are the roots from which Bosman's first novel, Jacaranda in the Night, was to grow. Exactly when it was written is uncertain, but when in 1945 an English novel competition was held in an effort to increase the volume of local English publishing, Bosman's novel was one of those accepted for publication.

The setting is a Northern Transvaal town called Kalvyn - an allusion to Calvin, whose doctrines dominate the lives of these people. On the surface life in Kalvyn seems to flow placidly enough, but soon the hidden tensions are revealed. Expertly the author introduces the reader to one character after the other, and also to the humiliations and defeats and the petty victories that govern their lives.

For many years Jacaranda in the Night has been almost forgotten. Now, with the critical re-evaluation of Bosman and his work that the past few years have brought, it is again made available. For anyone acquainted with this author's writing, it is a work not to be missed.

Some wear on the dust jacket, but overall in fine condition.