Next Event: Saturday, 02 June 2012
Time: 12:00 for 12:30 pm
Venue: The Food Barn, Noordhoek Village

He’s just been shortlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize! Be seduced by the passion of Michiel Heyns’s pen, by the perfume of Paris as Michiel launches Invisible Furies fabulously at The Food Barn, Noordhoek..

Invisible Furies

by Michiel Heyns

After a thirty-year absence Christopher Turner returns to Paris. He is here to extricate his best friend’s son from the mercenary machinations of some Parisian gold-digger – or so it is assumed, at home in South Africa. Christopher, with melancholy memories of Paris, is deeply ambivalent about the city; and, as for the young Eric, Christopher remembers him as a brutish lout with little to recommend himself.
But both the city and the young man take Christopher by surprise: far from having been corrupted by the place, Eric turns out to have been immeasurably improved by it. The spoilt son has become a considerate and attentive host with charming manners. Furthermore, as Christopher is gradually introduced to Eric’s associates, he finds to his dismay that he likes them – above all, the beautiful Beatrice du Plessis, in her day a supermodel, now the mother of a young daughter apparently destined to follow in her mother’s footsteps. And Paris exerts her spell anew …
As Christopher comes to know and enjoy this ambiguous world, he finds his moral categories challenged: is beauty a trap for the innocent young, or a self-validating, even ennobling attribute of a fully lived life? Responding to the gentle appeal of Beatrice, he feels ever more strongly that the young man’s place is in Paris with her, rather than on his father’s farm in Franschhoek. But Eric has ideas of his own …
Exploring, as in the widely applauded Lost Ground, the tensions between the fatherland and a larger world, Michiel Heyns turns an ironic eye on the most seductive city on earth, and traces with humour and insight the invisible furies of the heart.

Michiel Heyns has won the 2009 Herman Charles Bosman Award for English Fiction, the English Academy’s Sol Plaatje Award for Translating, the South African Translator’s Institute Award for a Literary Translation for his translation of Marlene van Niekerk’s Agaat. He is the author of five previous novels: The Children’s Day, The Reluctant Passenger, The Typewriter’s Tale, Bodies Politic and the critically acclaimed Lost Ground. He was until recently professor of English at the University of Stellenbosch, giving it up to pursue his passion for the pen..

Welcome Drink

Riebeek Cellars Pieter Cruythoff Brut Sparkling Wine: dry, but fruity with a complex nose of tropical fruit and enhancing biscuit flavours. Crisp acid ensures a fresh, clean and very drinkable sparkling wine

Franck Dangereux’s Menu:

* Crumbed and baked goat’s cheese served on a quince compote with wild rocket salad and toasted pumpkin seeds

* Grilled linefish served on spring onion mash potato, with rosa tomatoes and finished with a lemongrass and galangal cream

*Caramelized apple tart served warm with toffee sauce and homemade ice cream

*Tea/coffee to your account

Wines

Riebeek Cellars
A cellar born in 1941 on the slopes of Riebeek Valley’s Kasteelberg, with its traditions stretching back some 350 years to the Dutch explorer Pieter Cruythoff who stumbled upon the Riebeek Valley in 1661, and founded the town of Riebeek-Kasteel in honour of Jan van Riebeeck. “And a tradition of simplicity for we believe that a great wine can only come from the finest grapes. The finest grapes can only come from good soil. And good soil comes only through collaboration with Mother Nature.” Which is why Riebeek Cellars is passionate about the ideals of the Integrated Production of Wine (IPW), a South African initiative that aims to decrease chemical intervention and improve waste management throughout the industry. It's also why Riebeek Cellars is a member of the WWF's Biodiversity in Wine Initiative (BWI), which underlines our commitment to protecting our remaining endemic renosterbos and adopting better farming practices to ensure healthier natural systems. It's all about respecting what we have, say Riebeek Cellars, and being passionate and caring in what we do with it.

*Riebeek Cabernet Merlot 2011: An exciting new blend offering the black berry flavours of a classic Cabernet with the ripeness and roundness of a Merlot. Careful oak treatment in subtle coffee flavours for a well-structured but very accessible wine ideal for every day enjoyment.

*Riebeek Chenin Blanc: as the unofficial drink of the Riebeek Valley, it’s the perfect every day wine that offers uncomplicated quality for the novice and connoisseur alike. Upfront tropical fruit, with an abundance of guava and gooseberries on the nose. The palate follows through with fruit flavours, balanced by a crisp acid to ensure a fresh and fruity style of wine.

Franck Dangereux's fabled Food Barn

Venue

The Food Barn, Noordhoek Village

Relaxed rustic, sophisticated simplicity in this double volume, delightfully rejuvenated old barn. The man wielding the wooden spoon is the fabled Franck Dangereux, award winning chef, and author of Feast, who cooks with passion and passionately returns to the simple things in life: “Love and food are all you need,” he says. Born in Cannes, he trained with Roger Verge at Moulin de Mougins, then, after stints at two Michelin 3-star restaurants in Paris, he set sail for the Caribbean where he started a restaurant high on a hilltop in St Bart. Lured to Cape Town, he worked with Frank Swainston at Uitsig before whisking egg whites to great heights at La Colombe – raising that restaurant to 28 in the list of the world’s 50 best restaurants. His gourmet tastes, gained at Grandmere’s knee, are simpler now – his inspirational use of the finest ingredients, his dedication to delicate preparation, his insistence on each plate being perfect. You’ll find that same perfection in The Food Barn Deli with its fragrant breads, great cheeses, glorious jams and mind-bending menu. For more: www.thefoodbarn.co.za

To Book

: R225. The Food Barn: 021 789 1390. Monday-Friday 9 am to 4.30 pm. Pay-on-the-day, 48-hour cancellation or be billed, no-shows will be billed. Vegetarians please place orders. Please note that a gratuity is not included and would be appreciated.

Prizes

*Two signed copies of Invisible Furies by Michiel Heyns (Jonathan Ball Publishers)

*Two R100 vouchers from Wordsworth Books

*Fabled five course tasting menu for two plus matching wines at The Food Barn

*Tummy-busting breakfast for two at The Food Barn Deli

* R500 beauty treatment of your choice for guys or gals with the best in the West – beauty therapist Dorothy, Greenways Hotel, Upper Claremont: 079 570 8738. www.greenways.co.za

Next Event: Saturday, 02 June 2012 Time: 12:00 for 12:30 pm Venue: The Food Barn, Noordhoek Village