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PAGECAST: The Wildest Beauty by Michiel Heyns (with Shaun de Waal)

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This week on Pagecast, Shaun de Waal sits down with acclaimed author Michiel Heyns to discuss his new novel, The Wildest Beauty.

Danny Marais is the twin brother of the beautiful, talented Charlie.

The Wildest Beauty is a remarkable novel, an account of their early childhood to their eventual enlistment in the First World War. From their placidly peaceful Stellenbosch schooldays to, ultimately, the battle of Delville Wood, Danny keeps a loving but half-resentful eye on his brother.

Though set largely in wartime, this novel is an intimate account of a small group of friends and family, inter alia the loving parents left behind in Stellenbosch. And then there is Danny’s life-changing encounter, in the darkened streets of wartime London, with a wryly cynical, battle-scarred officer.

In the midst of the greatest conflict in history, facing the wild beauty of ‘the abyss of unmeaning,’ Danny discovers the power of love, between friends, family – and even foes.

#Pagecast #MichielHeyns #TheWildestBeauty #SouthAfricanLiterature #WWIFiction #HistoricalFiction #bookpodcast
15 Mar English South Africa Books · Society & Culture

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