To our utter confusion and grief Henk van Woerden passed away unexpectedly in his sleep on November 16th 2005, in Ann Arbour, Michigan, where he stayed as Writer in Residence for Michigan University.

If you are interested in Henk van Woerdens novels, please do not hesitate to contact our agent Laura Susijn ([email protected]) or Uitgeverij Podium ([email protected]). 

A Biographical Note
A Mouthful of Glass
Ultramarine

A Biographical Note

Henk van Woerden was born in Leiden, The Netherlands, in 1947. Since post-war Holland encouraged many of its citizens to emigrate, his father hoped to settle in the United States, specifically in Utah. For various reasons, though, the family ended up in southern Africa instead. At the age of nine, after a sea journey which seemed as interminable as it was adventurous, the family disembarked in Cape Town at the beginning of 1957. Henk was enrolled at an Afrikaans medium boys-only junior school, which he hated. Three years later his mother had him transferred to Westerford High, an English language secondary school. To his great relief it turned out to be bi-educational as well. He matriculated in 1964, determined to study Fine Art. After obtaining a dispensation for his age – he had only just turned 17 – he was allowed to register at the Fine Arts faculty of the University of Cape Town. UCT was considered to be a liberal hotbed in those days. The small group of students he became involved with opposed government racial policies, though more in word than in deed. As an undergraduate Van Woerden was perceived to be talented. By the end of the third year, however, he decided to break off his study and leave the country. ‘I hardly existed at that stage. I had refused to register for national service, carried no "White" pass, paid no taxes, and in effect remained in South Africa illegally, which was the preferred state of affairs.’ On May 1968 he flew to Amsterdam, via Angola, Malta and Luxemburg.
  The next years were spent travelling in northern Europe, the U.K., Italy, Turkey and Iran, as well as an extensive stay on the island of Crete. From 1972 onwards he based himself in the Dutch capital, returning to Greece often throughout the seventies and eighties. Though he had written reviews, poetry, short stories and even a play in South Africa, and continued to do so both in English and Dutch, he was reluctant to have these published. He made his living in the visual arts. Halfway through the eighties his paintings and drawings had been exhibited, and acquired, by most major Dutch museums. He was distinguished with the Royal Award for Painting (in 1980), and represented the Netherlands at the Internationale Triënale in Nuremburg, the Biennale des Jeunes in Paris, Nice and Lisbon, and a special exhibition of Dutch Art in Basel, Switzerland. He continues to hold one-man shows on a regular basis at galleries in the Netherlands.
  It was only as the eighties drew to a close that Van Woerden felt confident enough to approach a publisher for what until then had remained mere exercises in writing. A collection of excerpts from diaries kept on his first return journey to South Africa in 1989 was read by Joost Nijsen – now of Podium Publishers, Amsterdam. Nijsen encouraged him to write a novel based on his South African experience, and Van Woerden set about the tale of a Dutch emigrant family at the Cape. The book – Moenie kyk nie, 1993 – went into six printings and various editions; it was awarded the Geertjan Lubberhuizen Prize for best debut and nominated for the Libris Prize (the Dutch equivalent of the Booker Prize).
  Together with Tikoes (1996) and Een mond vol glas Van Woerden had by 1998 completed a South African trilogy that turned out to be influential, both in the Netherlands and in South Africa. The final part (A Mouthful of Glass, or The Assasin in the American edition) was in turn nominated for two major Dutch awards – the Generale Bank Prize and the Prix des Ambassadeurs. It was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and in 2001 it was distinguished with the prestigious Alan Paton Award for Non-Fiction (previous winners: Nelson Mandela, Albie Sachs). Subsequently Van Woerden wrote a brief biography of the South African poet Ingrid Jonker and scripted and co-directed a documentary on her life and work, Korreltje niks is mijn dood, which was awarded the Silver Rose at the Montreux Documentary Festival. In 2002 he collaborated with Sir Anony Sher on a stage version of A Mouthful of Glass; it ran at the Almeida Theatre, London, and was filmed and broadcast by the BBC in 2003. In the same year Notities van een luchtfietser appeared: a fictionalised account of a travelling life. Just recently (October 2005) Ultramarijn was published - a Mediterranean novel -, to great critical acclaim.
  Henk van Woerden wrote regularly for NRC Handelsblad; he contributed to Granta Magazine and Lettre Internationale (Berlin) and his literary work appeared in translation in fifteen countries.

Henk van Woerden passed away in his sleep on November 16th 2005, in Ann Arbour, Michigan, where he stayed as Writer in Residence for Michigan University.

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A MOUTHFUL OF GLASS
(Een mond vol glas)

In 1966 Demitrios Tsafendas killed the South African premier Hendrik Verwoerd and while Verwoerd went down in history as the architect of apartheid, his murderer stayed in the shadows, until today. In this powerful book Henk Van Woerden reconstructs the life of Tsafendas and gives a personal, intimate and insider account of the South African trauma, then and now.
Demitrios Tsafendas was born half-Greek, half-African, in colonial Mozambique, a world defined by racial prejudice. Van Woerden describes the man’s flight from country to country and his failure to fit anywhere. He was Christian, communist, coloured, black, white. Rejection and disintegration went together; by the end he was taking orders from creatures dwelling in his body. He longed to belong. Was this his madness? Van Woerden unravels the assassin’s strange, affecting history – the sad and desperate life of a man who went everywhere and belonged nowhere.
This is a masterpiece that completely transcends any obstacles of subject matter.

A fine piece of narrative writing, pared down to essentials, balancing fact and imaginative recreation with great care and integrity. The prose is beautiful and the story is one that never has been told before culminating in an act that changed history. The stabbing of Hendrik Verwoerd was one of the most important and dramatic political assassinations in modern history.

Together with his debut novel MOENIE KYK NIE (Geertjan Lubberhuizen Prize) and TIKOES Van WOerden completed with A MOUTHFUL OF GLASS a South African trilogy.

Published by Podium Holland; Granta UK; Metropolitan USA; Kedros Greece; Queillerie South Africa; Gyldendal Norsk Norway; Lettre International Germany (extract); Tiderne Skifter Denmark; Actes Sud France; Grijalbo Mondadori Spain; Temas e Debates Portugal; Radio BBC World Service; Ancora del Mediterraneo Italy

A stage version (by Sit Anthony Sher) ran at the Almeide Theatre, London and was filmed and broadcasted by the BBC.

Praise for EEN MOND VOL GLAS:
‘Only van Woerden would succeed in redefining the country’s history in this way. He has managed to extricate Tsafendas from obscurity, out of prevailing, shameful silence; so that we may be acquainted with the man in all his particular humanity.’ Breyten Breytenbach

‘A thoroughly successful blend of biography and fiction, suggesting in intriguing ways how a new history of South Africa can be written.’ J.M. Coetzee

‘It is a picture both astute and sickening, both moving and grotesque, as the freedom of the two main players comes to be defined more in terms of the only choice they have left - their different kinds of madness.’ Andre Brink

‘This book is Tsafendas’ biography, but it is also a work of exceptional imagination.’ Justin Cartwright

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ULTRAMARINE
(Ultramarijn)
October 2005

In a rowdy port on the Mediterranean, Aysel shares a secret with her half-brother Joakim. When their disgrace threatens to become public, they are torn apart. The young Aysel disappears overseas, banished to the north of Europe. Joakim’s intense longing finds some solace in music and he becomes a master lute player. The possibility that Aysel and Joakim will ever be re-united is unimaginable, but a twist in the tale gives the novel a mythical dimension.

ULTRAMARINE traces the boundaries of passion. Van Woerden sketches brings to life a shimmering continent, mapping the fault lines of its cultures. It is a novel of almost tangible melancholy, written in the sensitive and sensual language which characterises Henk van Woerden’s work.

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