Marike: A journey through summer and winter - Maretha Maartens (First edition)

Marike was the name for the unborn daughter that her father had filed away in the recesses of his mind in his own journey through life. Marike, he was convinced even before she was born, would be different. She would escape the flour dust of the mill in Tweespruit and travel through other landscapes to her own destination.

That the child whose roots lay in Tholen, in Zeeland, would eventually stand by the side of the man who was to control the destiny of an African country, that she would dine with kings, and hide the scars of cancer beneath designer outfits, that fame has its own price and that she, too, was destined to travel uncharted ways, that no one could foresee.

Marike de Klerk recounts a remarkable personal history with which thousands of women will identify. The elegant woman by the side of the State President and Nobel prizewinner, the dynamic woman who met First Ladies from all over the world, who could also on occasion stand upon tables in garages in Mitchells Plain to convince women that they do have power, this woman herself endured times of intense powerlessness, suffering and victory. 

Marike de Klerk's journey through summer and winter, through landscapes of light and stormy skies, but above all her journey to the sense of things and to God, is one woman's unforgettable story, a story with an extraordinarily powerful impact, a bitter-sweet tale of love.