"Olga Kirsch needs to be more widely known in South African letters. She is well

Known is Afrikaans circles, but she is selectively appreciated there and in English

South African literary history she is hardly known at all.

The biography brings the various threads of Kirsch's life and work together,

Showing their complex interrelationship, their multilingualism and cross-

culturalism. In particular, it gives Kirsch the nuanced, complex positioning between

languages and cultures that she deserves. Kirsch's poetry is a bridge between cultures

that are otherwise scarcely in communication.