The Wall Of The Plague

Nov 25, 2025 4:06 PM

Author:André Brink

Helping to research her lover's film on the great plague, Andrea returns to Provence. However, her journey becomes more a trip of personal discovery than one of pure academic research as she begins to enjoy more and more of the idyllic lifestyle.

Travelling with Mandla, a fellow South African and Black activist, helps Andrea put into perspective the more hedonistic elements of her new life. However, through the intensity of his own convictions Mandla forces his friend to re-assess her own beliefs, casting a shadow on the relationship.

As the story unfolds in a landscape evoked with a breathtaking mastery, Andrea and Mandla confront the uneasy relationships which develop between themselves and their lovers. Their difficulties form an allegory for those faced by two disparate continents, as they undertake the process of reconciling Europe's past and Africa's present.

Reviews

A courageous self-assessment... interesting and pivotal... done with sincerity and intelligence

—— Times Literary Supplement

Peter Carey, Garcia Marquez, Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Andre Brink must be considered with that class of writer

—— The Guardian

One of South Africa's most eloquent literary voices

—— Libby Brooks , Guardian

One of South Africa's most distinguished writers and a key figure in the modernisation of the Afrikaans novel

—— Observer

The best novel is a book that, to my shame, I have only just read. Visiting Vienna earlier in the year, I realised how little I knew about the Austro-Hungarian empire. So I read Joseph Roth's 1932 book The Radetzky March (Penguin Classics) and, as soon as I finished reading it, I read it all over again.

—— Chris Patten , New Statesman

'Delights, amuses, moves and angers you with the lightest of touches. It is, as might be said of Cadence herself, a small masterpiece'

—— Simon Callow , Vogue

'Wonderful, funny, poignant and gutsy...you can feel the author's huge and hurt and loving heart beat on every page'

—— Anne Lamott , Mademoiselle

'An intensely enjoyable novel about friendship and prejudice: the dialogue is word perfect, the psycology laser fine, and there are some terrific jokes... but no synopsis can do justice to this glorious book'

—— David Profumo , Weekend Telegraph

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