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Born in 1939 in Trompsburg, South Africa, Karel Schoeman matriculated in 1956 from Paarl Boys' High School. In 1959, he obtained a BA degree in languages from the University of the Free State. In 1961, he joined the Franciscan Order in Ireland as a novice for the priesthood, but then returned to Bloemfontein to obtain a Higher Diploma in Library Studies. During the 1970s, he went into voluntary exile, working first as a librarian in Amsterdam and then as a nurse in Glasgow, Scotland. He returned to South Africa in 1983 and worked until his retirement in 1998 as an archivist at the South African National Library in Cape Town. He then returned to his town of birth, Trompsburg, where he lived for more than a decade before moving to Bloemfontein. In September 2008, he moved to the Noorderbloem retirement community, where he died on 1 May 2017.
Schoeman is known not only as a novelist, but is equally renowned as an historian and biographer. He has also published translations (especially of drama), several travel books and an autobiography. He won the most prestigious Afrikaans literary award, the Hertzog Prize, three times: in 1971 (for By Fakkellig, 'n Lug vol helder wolke and Spiraal), 1986 ('n Ander land) and in 1995 (Hierdie lewe).The Recht Malan Prize for "excellence in the field of non-fiction books" was awarded to him four times.On the retirement of President Nelson Mandela in 1999, Schoeman was one of only two writers to be awarded the State President Award: Order for Excellent Service. In more recent years, his fiction garnered much praise in France, winning inter alia the prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger in 2009.
His 1972 novel, Na die Geliefde Land (literally: To the Beloved Country), was made into an award-winning feature film, Promised Land in 2002, with a screenplay by Jason Xenopoulos. Schoeman has produced and published several screenplays, including an adaptation of his first novel, Veldslag, some of which were broadcast on South African national television during the 1980s.
Schoeman committed suicide at a retirement center in South Africa at the age of 77, writing about dying with dignity in his suicide statement. A previous attempt failed when he was 75.
