Summary This article discusses the way in which Karel Schoeman's autobiography, Die laaste Afrikaanse boek (2002), constitutes a combination of the different genres he has used in his writing career and argues that his text is a demonstration of the statement that autobiography is a hybrid genre that preys on other genres. This reading of the autobiography focuses on the way in which Schoeman's autobiography represents a specific reaction to South African history. The article points to the possibility of comparing Schoeman's autobiography to the wide range of South African autobiographies written at other historical junctures and from other perspectives. Finally a comparison is made between Schoeman's autobiography and that of another Afrikaans writer, M.E.R., whose autobiography, My beskeie dee/, was published in 1972.