Chris Marnewick
(South Africa, 1948) kicked up a lot of dust in South Africa with his debut Shepherds & Butchers (2008) about the death penalty. Marnewick, a lawyer by profession and a lecturer in law, ingeniously succeeds in interweaving fact and fiction. He bases his novel on real murders and executions in 1987. The death penalty was abolished in South Africa at the close of the 1980s, but many of Marnewick's compatriots plead for its reintroduction in order to curb the violence in te country. With his detailed and factual description of the executions and their emotional consequences Marnewick shows his readers the moral objections attached to the death penalty. In addition, Shepherds & Butchers has led to a discussion on the boundaries between fact and fiction, which are often completely vague in the book.
Past events
The Real Thing 1: Morality
Ethicists, writers and artists about their quest for truth and genuineness. A full evening's, three-part programme hosted by Michaël Zeeman. Part 1: morality. If people lose their moral bearings, can the law keep them on the straight and narrow path?Writer/ethicist Marjolijn Februari reads her column, and will talk about morality and writing with the German writer Juli Zeh and the South African writer/criminal lawyer Chris Marnewick. In English.
