REVIEW | With Still Breathing, Marita van der Vyver weaves a richly developed Breathing Space sequel

Still Breathing by Marita van der Vyver is the sequel to her 1999 novel, Wegkomkans (published in English under the title Breathing Space). I remember devouring this nearly 500-page novel one weekend in 2000, reading late into the night, telling my then-partner to go and watch a video. I just had to get to the end. I was engrossed in the cast of characters and needed to see what would happen to them all.

That novel ended in 1995; Still Breathing picks up the cast of characters in 2020, just before Covid-19 breaks out. Borders are shut, and lockdowns imposed. Its Afrikaans title is Laaste kans, and that’s an apt title, too, for a novel about this group of friends. Now in their 60s and 70s, the group who populated the earlier novel have gathered together, for the first time in years, to celebrate Adriaan’s 70th birthday together with his wife, Yvette.