231 mm x 152 mm, 560 pages RRP: R270, ISBN 978-1-4152-0045-2 Publication date: 31 March 2008, Category: Fiction A work of history cum fiction that will grip and sometimes amaze the reader. J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize winner Description Named after the Holy Fool and Gaper, Father Joseph Cupertino tells an extraordinary tale ranging from Austria to Bosnia, Natal to East Griqualand during the 19th and early 20th Century. It chronicles the journey of a monk, Franz Pfanner, through the obscure labyrinths of the Trappist order, avowed to a life of silent contemplation, to where he establishes the monastery at Marianhill in South Africa. Hardworking and devoted, Pfanner leaves in his wake a trail of controversy that reaches its apex at Marianhill which, through his missionery zeal, grows into one of the largest monasteries in the world. His success at spreading the Word of God, however, comes at a terrible price, for it requires his surrender to the world of words, through which faith, contemplation and grace become intermingled with demonic possession, madness, even murder. After Pfanner’s death in exile the Gaper buries the heart of his Abbot and, for the sake of silence, violates his very commitment to silence in writing this chronicle. This provocative second work of fiction by Michael Cawood Green uses the multiple aspects of silence to interrogate the lost stories it recovers. From For the Sake of Silence, page 9 Later, in a dawn shrouded with mist, I said the Mass for the Dead. Then I stood back as Sr Angela, still shaking with grief, went to the kitchen and came back with our largest knife in her hands. I said nothing as she stood with her arms raised, the blade gleaming in the light of the candles we had arranged around his body in the dark room. And I said nothing when the knife (a knife that, it struck me in that instant, in all its long service had never known flesh or bone or blood) suddenly flashed down and was buried in his chest. The sound of cutting and carving was strange in the quiet of the morning, and I withdrew into that stillness as the weeping Sister squelched about and finally lifted out the heart. This she brought bleeding to me. I took it in my hands, uncoffined, and walked out into a morning that was spreading like a bruise over Emmaus. To read on Q. By writing the novel, did the narrator not break with the Rule of Silence? Or does the rule not apply to the written word? A. Thomas Merton, the most famous modern Trappist (he died accidentally, or was murdered, in the late 1960s), wrote prodigiously, arguing that writing (as opposed to speaking) was an act of meditation, and therefore part of a life of strict silence and contemplation. Father Joseph does not believe this: writing for him is a deep act of penance, of punishment. Extract from an interview with the author on LitNet, conducted by Haydee Morgan-Hollander. Read the whole interview. J.M. Coetzee says of For the Sake of Silence: Of the Trappist enterprise in nineteenth century South Africa, with all its passionate personal rivalries and Byzantine internal politics, Michael Cawood Green has made a work of history cum fiction that will grip and sometimes amaze the reader. From the reviews: After only the first few pages I could not escape the book’s irresistible attraction. – Karina Magdalena Szczurek on Litnet. Read the whole review. Green wen die Olive Schreiner-prys – lees artikel in Die Burger hier. Click here to listen to a podcast of Sue Grant Marshal interviewing Michael Cawood Green on ‘Reading Matters’ for Radio Today, 12 August 2010. To buy this book www.exclusivebooks.com www.kalahari.net home   writers   books   contact   buy   rights all content © Umuzi, Random House Struik this website designed and maintained by Guanaco.co.za