Series:

The Collected works of Laurens van der Post

9 total works

Cover of The Face Beside the Fire

Cover of Journey into Russia

Cover of A Story Like the Wind

A Story Like the Wind

by Laurens van der Post

Published 1 November 1978
This is a story of an almost vanished Africa; a world of myth and magic in which the indigenous peoples of the continent lived for uncountable centuries before the Europeans came to shatter it. The main character is a boy who has a relationship with this Africa not unlike Kipling's Kim with the antique world of India. Francois Joubert, whose Huguenot ancestors settled in Africa three hundred years ago, lives as a solitary child on his father's farm. 'Hunter's Drift'. Here, in the far interior of Africa, he experiences the wonder and mystery of an ageless, natural primitive life, his perception of it heightened by the influence of three people in particular - his Bushman nurse, the head herdsman of the local Matabele clan (his father's chosen partners in the pioneering of Hunter's Drift), and a hunter of legendary fame, now the chief ranger of a vast game reserve nearby.
Francois' meeting with an untamed Bushman, Xhabbo, whose intuitive teaching nourishes his spirit; his strange pilgrimage to the distant krall of a powerful witch-doctor; his dramatic encounter and relationship with the daughter of a retired colonial governor; all are examples of African point and European counterpoint, in a highly original theme, moving to a strangely presaged and omened climax.

Cover of The Seed and the Sower

Cover of The Night of the New Moon
Presents the story of the author's experiences in the prison camp and a meditation on the morality of the Bomb, a contemplation of human violence.

Cover of Venture to the Interior

Cover of The Heart of the Hunter

Cover of Flamingo Feather

Flamingo Feather

by Laurens van der Post

Published December 1960
Flamingo Feather, which Laurens van der Post dedicated to the 'fast vanishing Africa' of his boyhood, is a story of adventure - adventure unfolded in the great tradition of story-telling. It is the tale of two white hunters - one old, experienced and wise, one young and resolute - who suspect that something evil is being prepared on a vast scale in their country and who, with little to guide them, set out to track down its source. In the unfolding of their story, the immense scene of bush, forest, jungle, lake and mountain, the untamed wildlife and vivid animal beings, and the background mind and culture of the indigenous people in all their archaic reality, are evoked as never before. Indeed so deeply does the story draw on Laurens van der Post's knowledge of the country, so directly does it touch on vital elements in African life, that it carries the conviction of an authentic personal experience. Africa itself lies at the heart of the story, Africa as it has been and as it may yet become.

Cover of The Hunter and the Whale
This is the story of a South African boy, Peter, who grows to manhood through a hard course of physical and emotional experiences. The scene, a heroic one, is set both on sea and on land. Peter is exposed to the conflicts set up by other characters, chief amongst whom are a dedicated and fanatical whaling captain, a Zulu stoker, a famous white hunter and his daughter. He learns how men can become obsessed by greed and the will to power; and he witnesses the struggle of natural man to come to terms with the demands of contemporary life. Peter's developing relationship with captain and crew; the fury and beauty of the chase; the fanaticism of the two great hunters - these are the leading motifs in Laurens van der Post's stirring narrative. His remarkable knowledge of whaling, and the force of his imagination sounding deeper then leviathan himself, carry the reader irresistibly forwards.