Having penned eight thrillers, seven of
which have been translated into up to 25 languages, top South African crime
novelist Deon Meyer is attracting local and international attention, rave
reviews with comparisons to John le Carre, and a growing string of awards
including the prestigious Barry Prize for Best Thriller of 2011 in the US.
Born in Paarl in the Western Cape, Meyer
(now 53) grew up in the Klerksdorp in the gold mining region of Northwest
Province. The middle child, growing up with two brothers, Meyer dreamed of
being a cowboy, a private eye, a detective, a fire
fighter, and a heroic soldier. It was the example of his parents that encouraged
Meyer to consider writing as a career – and combine several of these dreams
into a stellar literary career.
“My mother and paternal grandmother were always reading when they had
a spare moment. My late father loved books equally, but as the breadwinner, did
not have the time to indulge. He did, however, always make time to take his
three young sons to the town library, sometimes three times a week,” said
Meyer.
Meyer wrote his first attempt at a novel at
the age of 14 and reportedly blackmailed his brothers into reading it. Although
Meyer can’t remember the title, it’s housed in the literary museum in
Bloemfontein, and Meyer jokingly says he took his siblings advice and didn’t
write fiction again until he was in his 30s.
After matriculating from Schoonspruit High School in Klerksdorp, Meyer
went on complete a Bachelor of Arts at Potchefstroom University with majors in
English and History.
A Mozart and rock ‘n roll fan, Meyer
started his career as a journalist for Die Volksblad, a daily newspaper based
in Bloemfontein. His career includes public relations at the University of the
Free State, as well as advertising copy writing and internal communications for
Sanlam.
Meyer also completed
his honours in history and masters in creative writing and went on to combine
his love of motorcycles and writing as manager of special projects at BMW,
before concentrating on novel writing as a full time career.
Writing in Afrikaans, Meyer’s first novel, Wie met vuur speel, was published in
1994 and is the only one of his works not to be translated (because it wasn’t
good enough for an international audience according to Meyer). Since then Meyer
has written seven more novels and two books of short stories, with a new
thriller, Sewe Dae or Seven Days, due to be released in
November.
A prolific writer, Meyer produced a book
every 18 months for the first few years, but since writing full-time from 1998
he’s averaged one book a year – “including time for research, weighing up story
options and worrying that it will work”.
Meyer lives in Melkbosstrand on the West Coast with his wife Anita and
four children: Lida, Liam, Johan and Konstanz. He works an average of 12 hours
a day, but “only six to eight of creative writing. Admin, meetings, signings
take up the rest,” said a quick-humoured Meyer.
Meyer spends considerable time studying life in South Africa, setting
scenes, creating believable characters, driving masterful plots and passing
social comment on our life and times – and this professionalism has earned him
growing popularity as a crime thriller writer list of awards and
accolades.
Devil’s
Peak won the Martin Beck
award from the Swedish Academy of Crime Writers and the French translation won
the Readers’ Award from CritiquesLibres.com for Best Crime Novel or Thriller in
2010 and Thirteen Hours won the
prestigious American Barry Prize for Best Thriller of 2011 was well as the
Boeke Prize Fanatics Choice Award.
His latest book, Trackers, was the best selling novel in South Africa for eight
weeks running and reviewers say Meyer has “moved into John le Carre’s class”
and that the book, which has recently been released in the UK, US and Canada,
is “mesmerising”. However, when asked which book he thought was his best, Meyer
answered that none of his novels are perfect.
Extremely humble, Meyer attributes a lot of
his success to the “incredible people who have made it
all possible: my wife Anita, my agent Isobel Dixon, every publisher who have
risked the substantial investment of publishing me…”
