Book Excerpt: Pieternella, Daughter of Eva by Dalene Matthee

by Tracey on Feb 2nd, 2012

We are delighted to be able to bring you an extract from one of the late Dalene Matthee’s best-loved novels, Pieternella, Daughter of Eva. Pieternella, Daughter of Eva, the English translation of Matthee’s Pieternella van die Kaap, was released in paperback this month:

She’d pleaded with them for days not to send her away to Mauritius. Kicked and screamed, said the Cape was where she’d been born, it was her whole life. But they took no notice. Didn’t care. Early one morning a mounted soldier had ridden up to the Van der Byls’ house to announce that the young girl Pieternella van Meerhoff was to bind up her bundles and report to the quay; the Boode was preparing to sail.

‘I don’t want to leave!’ she screamed one last time and rolled under the nearest bedstead.

‘Pieternella…’ Juffrouw Sophia pleaded, ‘it’s the Church Council that has decided this and you have to obey.’ Kindly Juffrouw Sophia van der Tempel, wife to carpenter Gerrit van der Byl, her foster father. One child of their own, Pieter van der Byl. ‘Please, Pieternella, come out.’

‘No. I’ll lie here till I’m dead, I’m not getting on to the ship!’

‘Get the bitterness out of your heart, girl. Don’t go on so un-gratefully pushing away the Almighty’s hand of mercy. Go, and be obliging to your new foster parents, Mynheer Borms and his wife. Set an example to your young brother. He went aboard days ago in sweet obedience. Have faith that the Lord God will lead you farther along life’s path.’