Almini van der Merwe

About

Almini van der Merwe is a South African writer based in Liechtenstein and the author of Ghost Limb, published by Penguin Random House South Africa in its prestigious Trailblazer Imprint. Ghost Limb was longlisted for the 2024 Sunday Times Fiction Prize, South Africa's most renowned literary award, and has received wide media attention and critical acclaim.

She holds a Master's degree in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town, and has collaborated with Alison Lowry, former CEO of Penguin Random House South Africa and one of the country's most respected literary editors.

Her work probes repression, past trauma, race relations, and the interchangeable roles of victim and perpetrator — rendered with fearless clarity and a mastery of language that critics have called irresistible.

MA Creative Writing · UCT Liechtenstein

Books

Available Now

Ghost Limb

Almini van der Merwe

It's the late Eighties in Strand, a small coastal town southwest of Cape Town. When Johanna, a new maid, arrives at the home of a dominee's family, nobody imagines that she will capture them in her web of emotional complexity. The narrator's daughter develops an ambivalent friendship with the new recruit, but Johanna remains an enigma — mercurial and full of fun one moment, prone to sudden rages the next, and eventually turning on the children.

Later in life, the narrator finds herself haunted by the mysterious fate of a woman who seems a part of her. Emotionally charged and poignant, Ghost Limb is a meditation on the mutability of memory and guilt, and on the consequences of reality denied.

Longlisted for the 2024 Sunday Times Fiction Prize — South Africa's premier literary award.

Published by

Trailblazer Imprint · Umuzi

The Widow Almini van der Merwe

Forthcoming

The Widow

Almini van der Merwe

She waited years for his posthumous book — certain she would find herself somewhere in its pages. Instead, she found a text-shaped hole where she should have been.

A literary novel of obsession, erasure, and the dangerous lengths one woman will go to write herself back into the story.

"She had kept mum to the end, surely she was owed this one tiny monument."

— The Widow, Almini van der Merwe

Generously supported by the Kulturstiftung Liechtenstein

Awards & Recognition

Longlist

2024 Sunday Times Fiction Prize

South Africa's premier literary award

Published in

Trailblazer Series

Umuzi / Penguin Random House South Africa — a prestigious imprint for high-quality fiction

Grant Recipient

Kulturstiftung Liechtenstein

Work on The Widow generously supported by the Kulturstiftung Liechtenstein

Press & Reviews

Deborah Steinmair

Award-winning literary critic and long-time book editor. Twice named Rapport-kykNET Book Reviewer of the Year.

"It is a brave book. Many recent books about grim childhoods focus only on personal trauma, with apartheid as mere background décor. Ghost Limb is different: set in the dying days of apartheid, it unfolds with fearless clarity, laying bare uncomfortable truths with little psychobabble or interpretation."

"Power is a sly, slippery thing. It feels politically incorrect to speak of the trauma apartheid caused white people, but did our psyches escape unscathed? Here it is articulated fearlessly and irresistibly. Ghost Limb is a book that will make me think for a long time."

★★★★Brave, fearless & irresistible

Sanet Oberholzer

Lifestyle and books writer for the Sunday Times — South Africa's most widely read Sunday publication.

"In her debut novel, Almini van der Merwe creates a nuanced portrait of a disturbed person as she probes repression, past trauma, race relations and the interchangeable roles of victim and perpetrator."

★★★★Four-star review · Sunday Times

Jonathan Amid

One of South Africa's leading literary critics and cultural journalists. Widely published in Rapport and the Sunday Times Literary pages.

"What makes Almini van der Merwe's debut novel Ghost Limb so compelling is her mastery of language and expression... paragraph after paragraph holds you in stillness. There is not a single superfluous word."

"It is an evocative, unsettling debut filled with moments of haunting clarity and a cumulative power that lingers long after the final page."

Susan Booyens

Respected South African media personality and literary critic. Widely published on LitNet — one of South Africa's go-to platforms for in-depth literary commentary.

"The fine way in which Van der Merwe balances the familiar and the eerie throughout the novel is striking. The reader is led into unease with subtlety, without ever being alienated."

"The description of this outing, which so callously destroys Johanna's chance to officially exist, is a fine example of the author's acute perception — crystallising the locally genial, everyday suburban life, behind which the cruelty of the system is plastered over, into something sinister and deeper."

Reader & Influencer Praise

Anschen Conradie

"Uit die Perd se Bek"

Popular South African book influencer — ranked #13 on Goodreads South Africa. Columnist for "Uit die perd se bek".

"It is hauntingly nostalgic and melancholic at times; beautiful in its simplicity and is recommended for readers enjoying reminiscence and reflection. The novel examines the long-term effects of our childhood experiences; the lengths to which we will go to deny the inevitable; the consequences of our choices and the past following us like a shadow — remaining an undeniable part of both our present and future."

★★★★ Four-star review

Rina Coetzee Gous

"The Cat Juggles"

Book blogger and reviewer who selected Ghost Limb as her Book of the Year.

"Without a doubt the highlight of the book is the beautiful language and descriptive phrases used by the author. It is a joy to read and that alone makes it well worth the read. This book deserves its place in the 'Trailblazer' series of high quality fiction published by Umuzi, an imprint of Penguin Random House."

★★★★★ Five-star · Book of the Year