Triomf - Marlene van Niekerk (English)

Triomf, originally written and published in Afrikaans, immediately captured the public imagination and proved to be a runaway success. It was awarded both the CNA Literary Award and the M-Net Prize in 1995 as well as the Noma Award for African literature. It is now available in an outstanding translation by South African poet Leon de Kock.

This is the story of the four inhabitants of 127 Martha Street in the white suburb of Triomf, built over the ruins of old Sophiatown, once the vibrant and notorious centre of black city life in Johannesburg.

Pop – the angel of peace teetering on the brink of the grave; Treppie – master of misrule and family metaphysician; Mol – the materfamilias in her eternal housecoat; and Lambert – the misfit son of the household, are the central characters. Through their eyes the novel probes Afrikaner history and the politics of the old South Africa, in order to reveal the bizarre and tragic effects of apartheid on the white lower classes who should have been its main beneficiaries.