He then left for Paris, where he studied comparative literature at the Sorbonne University. In 1961 he was appointed as lecturer at the Department of Afrikaans-Nederlands at Rhodes University in Grahamstown.

In 1962 Lobola vir die Lewe appeared and is considered to be his debut. With Breyten Breytenbach, he was one of the key figures in the Sestiger movement. He was head of the Afrikaans-Nederlands Department at Rhodes University from 1980 to 1990. He was then appointed to the English Department at the University of Cape Town, and later became professor emeritus in English at the university.

Brink was one of the most versatile figures in the South African literary industry: novelist, dramatist, travel writer, translator, littérateur, critic and academic. His novels were translated in more than 30 languages, including Serbo-Croatian, Japanese, isiXhosa and Vietnamese. He has been awarded the Hertzog Prize twice (2000 and 2001).

His novel Kennis van die Aand (1973) was the first Afrikaans book to be banned by the South African government. Thereafter, a number of his books in English and in Afrikaans were banned. He was shortlisted twice for the Booker Prize in 1976 for An Instant in the Wind and in 1978 for Rumours of Rain, as well as the Nobel Prize for literature several times since 1979.

A Dry, White Season, was filmed starring in the leading roles Donald Sutherland and Marlon Brando. He translated over 60 books from world literature into Afrikaans. He was knighted by the French government as a Chevalier (and later Commandeur) de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He held honorary doctorates from the Universities of the Witwatersrand (1985), Free State (1997), Pretoria (2003), and the Belgian Francophone Université catholique de Louvain (2015). On a flight back to South Africa, a few days after receiving the latter, and while flying over Africa, Brink passed away.

"André Brink did much more than pen haunting novels set in apartheid South Africa, beautifully – he was a gentle pathfinder whose stories coaxed his readers to challenge the racial enclaves in their minds,” said anglican archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

The Unviersity of Cape Town will be hosting Tribute to André Philippus Brink on Monday, 2 March at 18:30 for 19:00. The tribute will take place at Lecture Theatre 1 of the Wilfred and Jules Kramer Law Building on the middle campus.

Seating at the event will be limited. Guests are required to confirm their attendance by emailing [email protected].