Beyond the Book: Background information when reading Dead at Daybreak

Beyond the Book

This article relates to Dead at Daybreak

Deon Meyer was born in the South African town of Paarl in the wine region of the Western Cape in 1958, and grew up in Klerksdorp, in the gold mining region of Northwest Provence. After military duty and studying at the Potchefstroom University, he joined Die Volksblad, a daily newspaper in Bloemfontein as a reporter. Since those heady days, he has worked as press liaison, advertising copywriter, creative director, web manager, Internet strategist, and brand consultant.

In 1994 he published his first Afrikaans novel, which has not been translated.  All later novels have been translated into several languages, including English, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Bulgarian.  He lives in Melkbosstrand on the South African West Coast with his wife, Anita and their four children.

This is Meyer's 2nd novel to be published in the USA: Heart of the Hunter was published in the USA in 2004, and was originally published as Proteus in South Africa in 2003. Dead At Daybreak was originally published in South Africa in 2000, and a third volume, Dead Before Dying, is yet to be published in the USA but, I believe, was originally published before Dead At Daybreak.

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This article relates to Dead at Daybreak. It first ran in the September 1, 2005 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.