What do you think?
Rate this book
Thula-thula
Op 'n wintersmiddag kom Gertruida terug Kiepersolkloof toe nadat haar pa en ma op die dorp begrawe is. Haar hart juig. Dit was nie haar pa en ma nie. Dit was Abel en Susarah. Mense wat wandel met God. En ingehaak is by Satan.
- GenresFiction
330 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
10 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
About the author
Annelie Botes
23 books46 followersAnnelie Botes was a South African writer in the Afrikaans language.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
October 7, 2012
Dark as midnight!
I happened to pick this up n the library without ever having heard of Annelie Botes.
This is not your common-or-garden "post election, New South Africa" tale.
While initially it did not keep me hooked, the more I read the more I wanted to read......
Tragic story, but yet all to true for millions of people around the world.
The dins of the fathers etc etc
I can't wait to find more books by this author.
I happened to pick this up n the library without ever having heard of Annelie Botes.
This is not your common-or-garden "post election, New South Africa" tale.
While initially it did not keep me hooked, the more I read the more I wanted to read......
Tragic story, but yet all to true for millions of people around the world.
The dins of the fathers etc etc
I can't wait to find more books by this author.
December 29, 2022
Sjoe. Was lanklaas so gewalg met 'n karakter in 'n boek. My pa kuier nou by my en ek moes hom styf vasdruk en dankie sê dat hy nie 'n mal recce was nie. Dit is bitter hartseer dat die dinge nou nog in huishoudings gebeur. My huishulp se buurvrou het 'n kind by haar eie pa. Die seuntjie is nie normaal nie. My hart wil breek as ek hom sien as ek haar gaan aflaai.
August 5, 2014
Fantastic read written by this South African author but beware! Extremely graphic in the description of the abuse Gertruidah had to endure at the hands of her own father. All I thought was, thank goodness I had a dad who I could go to with any problem and just be loved in the normal way. What a blessing! My favourite character in this book: Thandeka.
May 26, 2015
Uiters, uiters ontstellend. Ek sal niemand aanraai om die boek te lees nie, alhoewel dit een van die beste boeke is wat ek nog gelees het. Ek het die boek oopgemaak en die eerste keer toe ek hom toemaak was toe ek hom klaar gelees het. Bloot omdat ek gehoop het om iewers verligting te vind wat ek net nie kon kry voor daar nie meer blaaie in die boek oor was nie.
January 9, 2020
I found this book quite upsetting at times, to the point that I wanted to stop reading. However, I love this author's writing style, her deep knowledge of people and her way to describe the everyday. May not be for everyone, but a must if you are an Annelie Botes fan.
October 23, 2025
Heartbreaking book. Full of graphic, sickening detail.
It's an honest and unflinching portrayal of Gertruida's sexual abuse.
What makes the book so hard to read, besides the detail that it doesn't for one second shy away from, is how deep it goes into her psyche. You realise the detail she is recalling is so scattered because it started happening to her when she was so young. It happened so often that it became part of her everyday life, her normal.
How utterly horrible.
Then there's the fact that so many people around her (all of them adults that she trusted) either knew what was happening or strongly suspected and did absolutely nothing to help her. Worse, they gaslighted her around every turn and often blocked her avenues of escape. You feel so much helpless frustration and anger at their inability and unwillingness to intervene.
Her mother sweeping it under the carpet, blocking all avenues for Gertruide to actually get help. To the point that it actually seems malicious instead of just born of helplessness and fear.
Her aunt who suspects and later knows and does nothing.
Mama Thandeka. Psychologists, teachers, friends, etc.
Some things are explained, the reason some of the characters acted the way they did. Understanding doesn't for one second mean it was justified or right. It just means that this is a ghastly, horrifying and very accurate portayal of something that shouldn't exist, but is more common than we'd like to believe.
As you read about a young girl being systemically destroyed over and over again from the age of four and a half you feel anger and helplessness.
The dialect used by Mama Thandeka is done realistically for the character.
So is the techniques Gertruide uses to escape, likening it to things she knows, making it part of a very dark fairytale-like landscape. Sometimes it's her escape, at other times it's what she uses to explain certain events and acts to herself. Either way, it does make the story's telling from an unreliable 3rd person POV.
One of the criticisms I have is that certain parts of it becomes repetitive. Because it's the parts describing abuse in super graphic detail, it could have been edited out. The story wouldn't (past a certain point) have lost anything from cutting a few of the detailed descriptions of abuse. It can feel to the reader as if the author is masochistic in a way, punishing herself with the writing of it, or punishing the reader by making them bear witness to yet another description that makes them sick to the stomach.
The second criticism I have is that some questions are left unanswered, like what role Abel really played in the army if he wasn't a recce. Why did he lie?
I also would have liked for Mama Thandeka and Gertruida to have a conversation, the one that was so long overdue. I wanted Mama Thandeka to apologise to Gertruida for letting her down. Not just justify it.
I also would have liked for there to have been a more certain resolution at the end. What happened to Gertuida and did she finally get some help? Did she find a measure of peace, some happiness? It's only ever hinted that she does, but it fell short for me.
Maybe a chapter just giving the reader a glimpse into her life ten years or so in the future. It could have done with a measure of hope, because not all or even most children of abuse are doomed to repeat the mistakes or the sins of their parents. Not all of them stay cut off from normal human interactions forever. They find love, they raise children of their own with love, awareness and sensitivity. They break the circle of abuse, often and with hard-won battles they fight every day. After all the ugliness, I would have liked to see something beautiful, and the ending was not enough of a resolution for me.
Anyway, this book has lots to say. This book wants to shock and revolt because the subject matter is shocking and revolting. It's not meant to be an easy read, a walk in the park. If you do read it, it's the kind of book that will always stay with you for better or worse.
Take note, the book has an age restriction of 18. The age restriction is there for a very, very good reason.
It's an honest and unflinching portrayal of Gertruida's sexual abuse.
What makes the book so hard to read, besides the detail that it doesn't for one second shy away from, is how deep it goes into her psyche. You realise the detail she is recalling is so scattered because it started happening to her when she was so young. It happened so often that it became part of her everyday life, her normal.
How utterly horrible.
Then there's the fact that so many people around her (all of them adults that she trusted) either knew what was happening or strongly suspected and did absolutely nothing to help her. Worse, they gaslighted her around every turn and often blocked her avenues of escape. You feel so much helpless frustration and anger at their inability and unwillingness to intervene.
Her mother sweeping it under the carpet, blocking all avenues for Gertruide to actually get help. To the point that it actually seems malicious instead of just born of helplessness and fear.
Her aunt who suspects and later knows and does nothing.
Mama Thandeka. Psychologists, teachers, friends, etc.
Some things are explained, the reason some of the characters acted the way they did. Understanding doesn't for one second mean it was justified or right. It just means that this is a ghastly, horrifying and very accurate portayal of something that shouldn't exist, but is more common than we'd like to believe.
As you read about a young girl being systemically destroyed over and over again from the age of four and a half you feel anger and helplessness.
The dialect used by Mama Thandeka is done realistically for the character.
So is the techniques Gertruide uses to escape, likening it to things she knows, making it part of a very dark fairytale-like landscape. Sometimes it's her escape, at other times it's what she uses to explain certain events and acts to herself. Either way, it does make the story's telling from an unreliable 3rd person POV.
One of the criticisms I have is that certain parts of it becomes repetitive. Because it's the parts describing abuse in super graphic detail, it could have been edited out. The story wouldn't (past a certain point) have lost anything from cutting a few of the detailed descriptions of abuse. It can feel to the reader as if the author is masochistic in a way, punishing herself with the writing of it, or punishing the reader by making them bear witness to yet another description that makes them sick to the stomach.
The second criticism I have is that some questions are left unanswered, like what role Abel really played in the army if he wasn't a recce. Why did he lie?
I also would have liked for Mama Thandeka and Gertruida to have a conversation, the one that was so long overdue. I wanted Mama Thandeka to apologise to Gertruida for letting her down. Not just justify it.
I also would have liked for there to have been a more certain resolution at the end. What happened to Gertuida and did she finally get some help? Did she find a measure of peace, some happiness? It's only ever hinted that she does, but it fell short for me.
Maybe a chapter just giving the reader a glimpse into her life ten years or so in the future. It could have done with a measure of hope, because not all or even most children of abuse are doomed to repeat the mistakes or the sins of their parents. Not all of them stay cut off from normal human interactions forever. They find love, they raise children of their own with love, awareness and sensitivity. They break the circle of abuse, often and with hard-won battles they fight every day. After all the ugliness, I would have liked to see something beautiful, and the ending was not enough of a resolution for me.
Anyway, this book has lots to say. This book wants to shock and revolt because the subject matter is shocking and revolting. It's not meant to be an easy read, a walk in the park. If you do read it, it's the kind of book that will always stay with you for better or worse.
Take note, the book has an age restriction of 18. The age restriction is there for a very, very good reason.
December 14, 2017
Having read books like "Dis ek Anna" Im sorry to say I was a bit dissapointed in this book. A lot of people said it was heartbreaking so I could not wait to start it... It did not exactly live up to my expectations. Dis ek Anna made me cry in every chapter, but whilst reading this book, I couldn't help but feel a bit disgusted at some of the graphic things said or how in some paragraphs the old woman who worked on the farm tries to make the rapist father out to be a good man. I did not shed a tear once. Still a good book and worth a read. 3 stars.
October 20, 2025
Hartverskeurend. Ek het nie ander woorde nie! Daar is niks fout met Annelie se skryf werk nie, ek het net biki gesukkel om kop te hou hier aan die einde want sy spring baie rond tussen die verlede en die hede, sonder duidelike aanduidings van wie aan die woord is, tussen Gertruida en Mama Thandeka. Maar sy vleg die storie pragtig saam. Ek het Mama Thandeka se metaforiese beeldspraak die meeste waardeer. Die storielyn, al wat ek daaroor kan sê is, dis hartverskeurend! Maar soos Gertruida “uitsmyt” so het ek saam met haar genees!
October 13, 2024
Excellent story telling. I love Botes' writing style. It flows and makes reading easy and fast.
December 27, 2016
Uitstekende navorsing en goed geskryf. Annelie Botes mag maar skryf.
November 26, 2016
This was one of the most difficult books I've read this year. Don't get me wrong, it is wonderfully translated & an easy style to read but wow, the theme & story is just gut wrenching & so so sore. I enjoy a dark story that explores why people are broken & this book delivered. The author herself commented about this on a post I made on a book page, saying the amount of research she put into the book to get it right. I imagine this hits the nail on the head. Absolutely heart breaking. I will definitely seek out the Afrikaans version to read as well. But not quite yet.
March 6, 2010
Sjoe...Annelie Botes mag maar skryf...dit is 'n ontstellende, hartseer, skokkende verhaal...die seer-stories agter Abel en Susarah het my met empatie gelaat maar ook met 'n magtelose woede en hartseer oor Gertruida se lewe wat gesteel is...een uit elke 5 gesinne het te make met bloedskande..dit is skokkend...
May 18, 2012
Extremely deep and graphic,
of a little girls child abuse by her father
where was was pregnant with his child and also the fact that her mother did nothing but as you
go through it you also learn her mom had the same fate with HER father
of a little girls child abuse by her father
where was was pregnant with his child and also the fact that her mother did nothing but as you
go through it you also learn her mom had the same fate with HER father
March 28, 2010
Baie ontstellend - jy moet 'n sterk maag hê vir hierdie boek.
December 22, 2010
This book is explicit! I gave it away so my kids dont accidentally page through. Otherwise excellent but shocking. Has a good ending.
June 19, 2011
Hoeveel Thula's is nie daarbuite nie? Dit was erg om te lees.
July 24, 2012
Dit was 'n skokkende maar baie goeie boek. Defnitief in my top 10
September 2, 2012
Great read, very emotional
December 27, 2014
An excellent novel, on a difficult and heartbreaking topic. Afterwards I was broken......
December 18, 2016
Uiters ontstellende verhaal... baie goed geskryf.
May 20, 2012
A disturbing story - easy reading
March 26, 2012
You need to have a very strong stomach to read this....
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews