De bezige bij foreign rights guide frankfurt 2014

Foreign Rights Guide Frankfurt Book Fair 2014

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erik kriek

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De Bezige BijThe Busy Bee Van Miereveldstraat 1-3 | nl-1071 dw Amsterdam | P.O. Box 75184 | nl-1070 ad Amsterdam | The Netherlands | tel +31 20 305 98 10 | fax +31 20 305 98 24 stand number at frankfurt book fair: 5.0 c6

foreign rights guide frankfurt book fair 2014 Kees van Beijnum Jan van Loy Rik Launspach Jeroen Theunissen Thomas Heerma van Voss Alma Mathijsen Philip Huff

Anita Terpstra

Arnold van der Laar Nathalie Le Blanc Dagmar van der Neut Bart van Loo Mark Schaevers

Milan Hulsing Aimée de Jong

70 Publishing house De Bezige Bij was set up illegally during World War II by a group of students in Utrecht who, led by Geert Lubberhuizen, financed their resistance activities under German occupation with a range of publications.

It was officially established in December 1944, several months before the war ended. After the liberation of the Netherlands it moved to a building on the Van Miereveldstraat in Amsterdam as a cooperative publishing house.

It operates from that same address to this day.

Stefan Hertmans Ruben Mersch Erwin Mortier Donald Nolet Peter Terrin Frank Westerman Tommy Wieringa Leon de Winter

Yves Petry Ernest van der Kwast

new literary fiction Sacrifice Forty Years of Love Rex Innocence The Third Person The Great Good Things Book of the Dead

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commercial fiction Different

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new literary non-fiction Under the Knife. The Most Famous Patients and Operations in the History of Surgery Solo. Why More and More People Live Alone The Beast In Us. What Animals Can Teach Us About Love Napoleon. The Shadow of the Revolution Organ Man. Felix Nussbaum. A Painter’s Life

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new graphic novels The Assault The Return of the Honey Buzzard

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successful titles War and Turpentine Blinkered Thinking. Why We’re All Idiots The Reflections Encrypted Monte Carlo Choke Valley A Beautiful Young Woman The Right of Return

40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54

preview 2015 Love In a Manner of Speaking The Ice-Cream Makers

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new literary fiction

An ambitious, epic novel, a grandiose love story against the political background of a devastated Japan ‘Van Beijnum is determined to tread one new path after another as a writer. He never falls into the trap of repeating earlier successful books. His writing becomes more profound all the time.’ – de groene amsterdammer kees van beijnum (b. 1954) is the author of successful novels including Dichter op de Zeedijk (Poet on the Zeedijk), which was published in 1995 and nominated for the AKO Literature Prize, while the movie based upon it won the Golden Calf – the Dutch version of the Academy Awards. De ordening (The Arrangement) was published in 1998, nominated for the Libris Literature Prize, and the film version was nominated for a Golden Calf. De oesters van Nam Kee (Oysters at Nam Kee) appeared in 2000, was made into a movie and won the 2001 F. Bordewijk Prize. His most recent novels are Paradiso and Een soort familie (Kind of Family) which was nominated for the AKO Literature Prize.

Kees van Beijnum Sacrifice ‘Time, the amount allocated to you and what you achieve in it, is the basis of all plans, big and small. Two weeks ago a new element was added to his regular, disciplined schedule. It was the day his self-imposed period of abstinence expired. He had been in Tokyo for exactly half a year. He allowed himself a woman.’

Tokyo 1946. A year after the capitulation of Japan, the Tokyo Tribunal is well underway. Dutchman Rem Brink is one of the judges tasked with reaching a verdict on the most prominent of Japanese war criminals. To distract himself from his colleagues’ power games and continually changing alliances, Brink tries to get to know a unfamiliar and utterly destroyed country.

When he meets Japanese soprano Michiko, who lost her parents during the bombing of Japan, a tender, secret love unfolds that turns out to bring dangers of its own. When their relationship is revealed, Michiko falls into disfavour with her Western benefactor. Her promising future lies in ruins and she leaves, pregnant, for her native village in the mountains. At that same isolated place, only a short time before, atrocious war crimes took place in secret.

World rights: De Bezige Bij • English synopsis and sample translation available.

Novel, 512 pages 5

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new literary fiction

Translated from the Dutch by David Colmer

1. It’s Thursday, he’ll be seeing her tonight. One hour a week, a gentle intermezzo between dossiers and court sessions. It’s all he expects. It’s all he wants. Brink closes his eyes, picturing the shadow of her shoulders, her small breasts, which, as he has now come to understand, are part of the traditional Japanese ideal of feminine beauty. He finds it hard to concentrate on what Keenan is saying. She rises up out of the violent images evoked by the American chief prosecutor’s words, the smouldering ruins of Nanking, like a shining lily.

A resident of Nanking takes the stand. The voice of the young Chinese is so soft and fragile that Keenan has to ask him to speak up twice before the interpreter can understand him.

With his eyes cast down, the witness tells them how he spent hours hiding in a mountain of bodies.

Brink takes notes and observes the accused, twenty-eight in total. They sit opposite him in rows, one behind the other, like the audience in a small theatre.

Their smooth faces, pale from months of confinement in Sugamo Prison, are bleached to a ghostly white by the bright lights on the ceiling. Inscrutability as their first and only defence against the judges, prosecutors and court officials, lawyers and journalists, photographers and cameramen. The Japanese in the public gallery are seated apart from the Westerners.

The Chinese relates that a Japanese officer swapped his boots for rubber ones and walked over the piled up bodies shooting survivors in the head with a pistol.

The accused listen to the translation through headphones. Or pretend to. Until the verdict is passed, their world, besides being menacing and uncertain, is above all limited and monotonous. They are kept alive in prison so they can appear here every morning. The days of generals’ uniforms and ministerial positions, of myths and doctrines, are over. They exist only as “Class A” defendants, responsible for twelve million victims – give or take a million. For the duration of the tribunal, their lives are linked to his, Brink’s, the youngest of the eleven judges.

After the session he doesn’t leave immediately for Ginza, where he has arranged to meet her. He likes to do things in a fixed order and lives according to the daily programme he has built up over the six months he has spent here so far. More from routine than necessity. As it’s Thursday, he starts with a whiskey on the rocks at the bar of the Imperial Hotel, a single glass, no more. Time, the amount allocated to you and what you achieve in it, is the basis of all plans, big and small.

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Two weeks ago a new element was added to his regular, disciplined schedule. It was the day his self-imposed period of abstinence expired. He had been in Tokyo for exactly half a year. He allowed himself a woman.

Higgins, a fellow judge with a shrewd, narrow face, sits down beside him and reaches into his inside pocket for his cigarette case. He lights a Lucky Strike.

“I’m returning to Boston next week.’ Higgins blows the smoke out past his protruding lower lip.

“Returning?”

“I’ve being doing some calculations,” the American explains. “Going by the speed of the prosecutors, it will take at least six more months before the defence gets a turn... Twenty-eight lawyers each trying to undercut every scrap of evidence... Add in adjournments, cross-examinations, the prosecutor’s closing speech and the oral pleadings, and it will be a year easy. And that’s not even including the verdict. It might sound a little disloyal, but the standard of some of our colleagues and the egos of others do not bode well for the collaborative process.”

“You can’t wash your hands of it now, surely?”

“They told me it would take six months.”

Back in the Netherlands, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had told Brink too that he would be away from his wife and daughters for just six months.

“You know, Brink, it took me fifteen years to build up what has become one of Boston’s most successful law firms. I refuse to ruin myself. And if I were you, I would follow my example while you still can.”

“But the very reason we accepted this task,” Brink demurs, “was because we wanted to be responsible for more than just ourselves, our firm or country.”

Higgins nods slowly and grins. “The only thing worse than associating with the naive is being naive yourself.’

He both hates and admires that in Americans, their sharpness and lack of timidity. “It’s our job,” he says.

“What?” Higgins smirks. “Ruining your career?”

“No, judging the Japs who caused the deaths of millions of innocent people.

Bringing hope where there’s only despair, justice where injustice rules.”

The smile playing over Higgins’s thin lips makes Brink’s words sound even more bombastic, but, as preachy as they may be, he really does mean it. Making the guilty accountable is a prerequisite for civilisation.

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new literary fiction

A novel about love, betrayal and self-delusion On Alpha America: ‘Van Loy has created a novel of international jury report, golden owl 2009

appeal.’

On I, Hollywood: ‘An epic that is almost impossible to put down.’ nrc handelsblad ‘A fantastic achievement. Van Loy shows convincingly that he knows how to use the literary power of the novel to the full.’ jury report, libris literature prize 2012

jan van loy (b. 1964) won the New Prose Prize in 2001 with his story ‘The Hell of Jan Foster’ and his first novel Bank Meat brought him the Flemish Debut Prize, 2005.

Alpha America was shortlisted for the Golden Owl in 2006, Gated was on the shortlist for the 2009 Golden Owl and I, Hollywood was shortlisted for the Libris Literature Prize 2012.

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Jan Van Loy Forty Years of Love ‘I had no idea then what kind of future I wanted.

Do you have to do something to know who you are, or know who you are before doing something?’

Born into a Flemish-nationalist family, a young teacher finds himself on the wrong side when the Second World War breaks out. In the provincial town where he lives, in the Kempen region, he nevertheless ends up in the resistance. His isolated house becomes a hiding place for Klara, who is Jewish. The fugitive and the reluctant resistance man fall in love and have a daughter. When Belgium is liberated and Klara is tragically killed, the young man is forced to flee, leaving his daughter behind. He vanishes behind the scenes of the Cold War and becomes a low-level spy with the codename ‘Henri Willems’.

To explain his clandestine life, Willems writes an autobiography in the form of letters to his daughter. The result is a heart-breaking account, the confessions of a man without qualities in post-war Europe.

World rights: De Bezige Bij Antwerpen Novel, 285 pages 9

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new literary fiction

Homerus meets Edward Snowden On Deus: ‘In a literary sense Launspach appears to be a close relative of Leon de Winter.’ – vrij nederland

‘Bold, overwhelming prose and captivating dialogue.’

– de telegraaf

rik launspach (b. 1958) is a writer, actor and director.

In 1993 he won a Golden Calf for his role in the film Oeroeg.

In 2009 his debut novel was published, 1953, about the disastrous flood of that year.

It sold more than 100,000 copies and became the basis of a successful film, The Storm.

In 2011 the novel Deus was published that can be read as a prequel to Rex.

Rik Launspach Rex ‘We can’t really be sure just where love comes from. Of no use at all in perpetuating the species, it’s time-consuming and labour-intensive and confusing.’

Rex grows up in idyllic Venice, where his two mothers try to protect him from the unpredictable outside world. Shortly before his eighteenth birthday he makes a shocking discovery: the father he believed to be dead is still alive. On a whim he goes off in search of him, making an unplanned journey into his parents’ past – until he meets the miraculous Bieneke at the Mediterranean coast and everything changes.

Meanwhile Rex’s father, Amadeus de Ru, is attempting to move in precisely the opposite direction. Like a modern Odysseus he overcomes many obstacles in his efforts to find the way home.

World rights: De Bezige Bij • Sample translation available.

Novel, 459 pages • October 2014 11

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new literary fiction

A blood-curdling novel, thoroughly contemporary but about ancient questions of guilt, innocence, truth and civilization

Jeroen Theunissen Innocence

On Innocence:

‘There were four of them. I was pushed into a car.

On the back seat I sat with my head between my knees while the man to the left and the man to the right, one with a husky voice and the other a baritone, hit me every time I moved.’

‘Theunissen’s oeuvre becomes more relevant, convincing and irresistible with every book.’ **** de standaard On The Detours: ‘For this modern Odyssey, Jeroen Theunissen has discovered the Homer in himself.’ ***** de standaard ‘An extraordinarily lucid and incisive family novel.’ trouw

jeroen theunissen (b. Gent, 1977) made a remarkable debut with The Invisible One (2004).

He published two volumes of poetry, Homesickness (2005) and It’s Like This (2009), the story collection The End (2006) and the novels A Form of Fatigue (2008) and The Glass Dome (2010).

His novel The Detours (2013) was shortlisted for the Libris Literature Prize. He lives with his partner and their son in a forest in the Flemish Ardennes.

While Manuel Horst, a young war photographer, is being held hostage by jihadists in Syria, his father, a well-known psychiatrist who is suffering from cancer, dies while hiking in the Pyrenees. Manuel is freed and in Beirut he meets Syrian refugee Nada.

He takes her with him to Belgium and they try to build a new life together in the house he has inherited from his father.

But they have not yet overcome their traumas.

Does he know the whole story about Nada? And what was Manuel’s father, with whom he broke off contact years ago, doing in the Pyrenees in the final weeks before his death? Why did the older man travel to the Middle East shortly before that, in an absurd quest to find Manuel? Has Manuel’s kidnapping left as few scars as he tries to convince himself it has? He starts digging into his father’s past, searching for the man he hated for so many years. Or is he in fact in search of himself?

World rights: De Bezige Bij Antwerpen • English synopsis available.

Novel, 236 pages 13

thomas rap

new literary fiction

Mature stories from a great literary talent

‘Impressive.We’re anxiously looking forward to

Thomas Heerma van Voss The Third Person

the future of this young writer.’ **** – nrc handelsblad ‘Thomas Heerma van Voss: remember that name boys and girls. [...] A story collection in which it’s great, because so easy, to wander astray.’ – humo

thomas heerma van voss (b. 1990) is the author of The Everything Table (2009) and of the much-praised novel Stern.

His stories, essays and articles have appeared in nrc.next, Vrij Nederland, Trouw, De Gids, Tirade, Das Magazin and Passionate.

‘For the past four months I’ve been living across from an erotic massage salon. It’s a narrow four-storey building.

The curtains are closed day and night. The only thing you can see from outside is the hallway behind the glass front door. There’s always a young, seductive woman there, dressed in a tight short skirt.’

Observing the lives of others and recording them in an attempt at control: that is one of the underlying themes of this collection. A student watches visitors to an erotic massage salon from his room, a twenty-something in love visits an internet acquaintance for the first time, a despairing son turns to his father – they all dream of direct human contact but the practicalities of real life get in the way. All the same, the dream remains as powerful as ever.

The Third Person is a remarkably mature collection, in both tone and content.

Heerma van Voss describes major themes with a certain lightness of touch. He offers us a glimpse into his characters’ damaged lives. They are all people who have remained on the sidelines and show awareness of the fact, often in a painfully witty manner.

World rights: Thomas Rap Short stories. 184 pages 15

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new literary fiction

A belated farewell to a legendary father Press on Everything is Carmen: ‘Everything is Carmen is anastonishing debut novel that shows the author is bursting with talent as a writer.

She grabs you from the start with an astonishingly powerful style.’ – limburgs dagblad ‘A funny and deftly written book.We are sure to hear more fromAlma Mathijsen.’ – de telegraaf

Alma Mathijsen The Great Good Things ‘Why did my father want a child? Why did a man who smoked two and a half packs of tobacco a day, drank gin like water and slept three hours a night want a child? Can I blame him for that?

Can I blame my father for me?’

Young Mila travels from Amsterdam to Israel with Don, her late father’s best friend. In the 1960s the two men, along with Majoor and Herman, formed a celebrated anarchist string quartet. Mila and Don’s journey takes them via Ruigoord to Eilat and for Mila the past comes alive, her father at last more than a character in stories. In The Great Good Things Alma Mathijsen artfully links two eras together.

It leads to an unexpected denouement, in which Mila once again takes leave of her father.

alma mathijsen (b. 1984) is the author of the novel Everything is Carmen, six plays and a collection of short stories. For The Great Good Things she researched the old group of friends around her father Hub Mathijsen, who in the 1960s performed with several string ensembles.

World rights: De Bezige Bij. Novel, 173 pages • October 2014 17

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new literary fiction

A moving novel about a desparate search for happiness On Book of the Dead: ‘From the very first page Huff locks you tight to his unhappy central character. (…) The great strength of Book of the Dead lies in the relentless consistency of its description of Felix Post’s life.’ **** – nrc handelsblad On Nobody in Town: ‘Philip Huff follows in the literary footsteps of the great Nescio and his masterpiece The Sponger.’

– de volkskrant

philip huff (b. 1984) studied philosophy and history in Amsterdam.

His debut novel Dagen van gras (Days of Grass, 2009) was nominated for the Academica Debut Prize, translated and filmed. His second novel, Niemand in de stad (Nobody in Town), won rave reviews and was awarded the Dioraphte Prize. It was followed by the short story collection Goed om hier te zijn (Good To Be Here), which earned Huff the label ‘the best author of his generation’.

Philip Huff Book of the Dead ‘What I can hear around me doesn’t sound particularly interesting. And Victoria is refusing to turn to face me.

She’s looking really great. She wears her hair differently than she used to, cut short. It looks thick. I haven’t seen Victoria since the accident at Borgloo.’

Felix Post, just shy of thirty, wanders around Amsterdam in the week before Christmas. The girl he desires is not his.

His job has reached a dead end. And his sister keeps going on about the family Christmas dinner. At his wits’ end, Felix flees the house: he drinks, snorts and ends up at dull parties, only to escape those too and finish up in the dark, nocturnal streets. Until he hits a wall and is finally forced to accept responsibility for his share in the crisis that is his life.

Book of the Dead pulls no punches, telling the story of a generation with a maximum of self-confidence but a minimum of selfknowledge. An important book for our time, just as Trainspotting was for the nineties.

World rights: De Bezige Bij. Novel, 282 pages 19

cargo

commercial fiction

‘Terpstra builds the story extremely well. She drops just the occasional hint and otherwise leaves the reader guessing. As a result you keep deciding to read just one more chapter.

An interesting thriller based on a true story. In no time you’ve read the whole book!’ ****– crimezone ‘Terpstra manages to upset the image of the lost son very gradually. Her new book, Different, is a logically constructed and believable story in which an oppressive tension builds slowly but relentlessly. Different is a deliciously readable thriller.’ – thrillerweb

anita terpstra (b. 1974) graduated in journalism and art history. Her successful debut thriller Night Flight was nominated for the Shadow Prize and the Crimezone Thriller Award.

Anita Terpstra Different ‘He had to be here somewhere. The forest wasn’t really all that big. They weren’t in Canada for God’s sake, or someplace where they have forests as big as the province of Utrecht or Groningen. A child couldn’t disappear without trace. Her own child. Impossible.’

Alma Meester and her husband Linc, along with their children Iris and Sander, seem like a happy family. But then eleven-year-old Sander and his friend disappear during a summer camp. His friend’s body is found, but Sander has disappeared without trace. Five years later, Sander reports to a police station in Germany. Deliriously happy, Alma and Linc embrace their son again, but the reunion is far from perfect. They start to have doubts. Is Sander really who he says he is? In an attempt to discover the truth, the family has to find out once and for all exactly what happened.

World rights: Cargo • Thriller, 302 pages 21

thomas rap

new literary non-fiction

An informative and enjoyable anatomy lesson for everyone Featuring Harry Houdini, J. F. Kennedy, Queen Victoria, King Darius, Louis XVI, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Jan de Doot, Pieter Stuyvesant, Empress Sisi, Karol Wojtyla, Lee Harvey Oswald, Jules Pedoux, Hercules Poirot, Lucius Apronius Caesianus, Sherlock Holmes, Bob Marley, Albert Einstein, King George VI, Lenin, Thérese Heller, Alan Shepard, Louis XIV…

arnold van de laar studied medicine in Leuven and currently works as a surgeon in the Slotervaart Hospital in Amsterdam. He regularly writes for the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Heelkunde.

Arnold van de Laar Under the Knife The Most Famous Patients and Operations in the History of Surgery

‘Surgeon’ derives from the Greek for ‘hand work’, and since the dawn of time the surgeon has been charged with the task of patching people up when they need it.

From the dark centuries of bloodletting and of amputations without anaesthetic to today’s sterile, high-tech operating theatres, surgeon Arnold van de Laar takes us on a journey through the wayward history of surgery. The patients that feature in his story are hardly ordinary: Empress Sissi (stabbed), Louis XIV (stula in the anus), Pope John Paul II (colostomy), John F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald (gunshot wounds), Lenin (cerebral infarction), Houdini (ruptured appendix), Albert Einstein (aneurysm) and Bob Marley (melanoma under the toenail). Van de Laar uses medical case histories that fire the imagination to examine issues of the past, present and future. His tone is lucid and professional, and harsh reality is tempered by plenty of humour, making Under the Knife a rich medical and cultural history and a modern anatomy lesson for us all.

World rights: Thomas Rap • English sample translation Upmarket popular non-fiction • 414 pages.

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thomas rap

new literary non-fiction

Surgeon Arnold van de Laar takes us on a journey through the troubled history of his own field of expertise: surgery.

Under the Knife is a captivating story, erudite and witty, and a fascinating introduction to a centuries-old profession.

Arnold van de Laar

UNDER THE KNIFE Extract from ‘Louis xiv’s grande opération’ His Most Christian Majesty King Louis the Fourteenth of France was intelligent and articulate, a beautiful dancer, gregarious, self-confident and gallant, big, strong, a sportsman, brimming with good health to a degree that enabled him to reach an unusually advanced age by the standards of his day. He loved horse-riding, hunting and warfare and, as James Brown would put it, he was ‘like a sex machine’. By the age of sixteen he had contracted gonorrhoea and there was even a reported case of a furious husband who visited the whores with the specific intention of giving the king (who had sex with his wife) syphilis, although without success.

It’s unclear whether the cause was his horse-riding, certain sexual preferences, the more than 2,000 lavements or enemas he underwent in his life, or the fact that the king relieved himself in public on his chaise percée or ‘close stool’, never wiping his own behind, but his doctor recorded in his medical notes that on 15 January 1686 a swelling was found next to the king’s anus. On 18 February it was discovered to be an abscess, which burst on 2 May to form a fistula that refused to close despite hot compresses and yet more enemas.

Louis xiv was apparently so troubled by his fistula that eventually surgeon Charles-François Félix de Tassy was asked to perform a fistulotomy. The surgeon, however, had never carried out the procedure. He asked the king for six months in which to prepare and practiced on seventy-five ordinary patients with fistulas before, on 18 November 1686, at seven o’clock in the morning, cutting open the king’s. The monarch was lying on his stomach in bed, with his legs spread and a pillow under his belly, in the presence of his wife, Madame de Maintenon, his son the Dauphin, his confessor Père de la Chaise, his personal physician D’Aquin and his prime minister the Marquis Le Tellier de Louvois, who held his hand.

The surgeon penetrated Louis xiv’s anus with his finger to trace the fistula. Up to that point the king felt no pain, only a little discomfort and embarrassment. The surgeon then asked the patient to lie still while he inserted a retractor into the anus and slowly screwed it open. That hurt.

Drops of sweat on everyone’s brow. If only this didn’t take too long...

Sample translation by Liz Waters

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new literary non-fiction

‘I think people are great, but in limited quantities. I get intense enjoyment from going out three or four evenings in a row, to a café or to someone’s house, talking, listening and laughing. But at regular intervals I need to take a break and simply muck about at home or sit on the sofa. Just as toddlers are quiet and tired after a busy day, having so many impressions to absorb, I need to recharge my batteries after a few days of busy socialising. Alone.’

Nathalie Le Blanc Solo

Why more and more people live alone Solo dispenses with prejudices and misunderstandings regarding those living by themselves.

In quite a few countries in Western Europe, one in every three households is made up of just one person, and that proportion is still rising. It can be explained in part by the increasing number of broken relationships, but our search for a balance between community and individualism is of relevance as well. Living alone is not always a conscious choice, yet most people come to appreciate it. After all, they have more freedom, privacy and time for self-development.

nathalie le blanc works as a journalist for De Standaard and for women’s magazines including Libelle and Feeling.

She has lived alone all her adult life.

In Solo, Nathalie Le Blanc brings this group into focus for the first time, and it is extremely diverse: young and old, male and female, singles and people in arms-length relationships. In countless conversations with experts and those with experience of living alone, she explores why they are so numerous and what they have in common. Anyone who lives alone has to organize life rather differently and often faces stubborn prejudice and incomprehension.

World rights: De Bezige Bij Antwerpen.

Popular psychological non-fiction • 312 pages 27

thomas rap

new literary non-fiction

‘Dagmar van der Neut describes interesting theories about, for example, the relative unimportance of men, homosexuality, the origins of love and why one species is created big and another small. She does it all in a sober and often witty style, with plenty of examples from the animal kingdom.’ – kijk **** ‘Dagmar van der Neut’s book is full of fun anecdotes, silly comparisons and extraordinary ways of making love. And it’s informative too […] a treat! Relaxing, without doubt, and it will raise a chuckle.’– vrouwonline.nl

dagmar van der neut studied psychology at the University of Amsterdam.

She is an editor at Psychologie Magazine and a journalist writing for publications including popular science monthly Quest. She writes about animal behaviour, evolution, personal growth, relationships and brain research. The Beast In Us is her first book.

Dagmar van der Neut The Beast In Us What Animals Can Teach Us About Love ‘What makes a man sexy is above all the fact that other women find him attractive. Men can make use of that fact. It’s worth investing in female contacts.’

Mating, copulating, having sexual intercourse, making love, call it how you will – in a far, far distant past mother nature decided that a useful survival aid would be to exchange genes. In other words, to have sex. But what are the amorous strategies handed down since prehistoric times?

And what can we learn from them about our own relationships and sexual desires?

With infectious frankness, Dagmar van der Neut asks the most diverse questions about love, sex, loyalty and friendship in animals and humans. What was prehistoric sex like? Are women as chaste as they like to pretend? Is it true that swans are never unfaithful? Are handsome men lazy? Do cows have girlfriends too? Do we all love only ourselves? This book offers a witty and illuminating view of love and sex, and everything that has anything remotely to do with either of them.

World rights: Thomas Rap • Rights sold: Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Germany).

Popular non-fiction: biology/psychology • 187 pages 29

thomas rap Sample translation from the Dutch by Liz Waters (chapter 6)

1. Are unassuming men on a losing wicket?

Thinking about alpha males, hotshots, machos and toughs, I suddenly felt sorry for the men reading this. Ordinary men, perhaps, who are not at the top of the pecking order, who don’t exactly excel at chatting up women and aren’t blessed with broad jaws and a torso to match. Men on the small side, maybe, or with crooked teeth; jobless men, or men with spindly legs – simply nice guys fervently hoping for a cute girlfriend, or who have one already but can feel the hot breath of a rival on their necks.

The danger of looking at things biologically is that it creates an image of the world in which only the richest, most powerful, funniest, smartest or most devastatingly attractive men stand any chance with women. Which seems a dismal prospect if you’re not Mister Big. Is it really the case that unassuming men are inevitably the losers in the fierce battle for women?

To find out, a Scandinavian zoologist cut almost forty centimetres off the tail of the long-tailed widow bird, an African songbird whose tail is absurdly long. He stuck those extra centimetres on other males, who became the most desirable overnight. In another experiment, male swallows had long fake tails glued to them. They found partners ten days sooner, had a second brood with a new female bird eight times as often and were twice as likely to have a bit on the side with a female who was already spoken for. Size matters, then, at least to the swallow and the long-tailed widow bird.

In another study, biologists interfered with three groups of swallows. One group had the prongs of their forked tails clipped, another was provided with extra long swallowtails and the third group of swallows had their tails cut short and then repaired to the normal length (to check that the females were being turned on by the tails themselves rather than by the smell of the glue or by freshly cut edges). Sure enough, the shorter-tailed swallows got the short end of the stick.

In their nests sixty per cent of the young were shown to be the milkman’s kids, so to speak, whereas the males with artificially long tails were the least often cheated.

Females are ruthless. If they have any choice, they’ll opt for the largest, toughest, most handsome males. If their partners unexpectedly become less attractive, females are more likely to cheat on them. What makes all this completely unfair is that it’s often ‘married’ males that are most popular with unattached females.

In elk, for example, the keeper of a harem, who already has the largest number of 30

new literary non-fiction females, is in demand among those outside the harem as well. The poor single males do all they can to commend themselves, but they usually come off second-best. Rather than taking up with an eager single, a female prefers a spot of hankie-pankie with a popular hunk who’s not available for a long-term relationship. Frustrating, it seems to me. For single guys.

So females select males for their ‘good genes’. Sometimes they go for symmetry, for strength or bright colours, since those things say something about a male’s underlying health or fitness, but what most females fail to realize is that often such features are mere outward show. In truth all that flashy stuff may say nothing about a male’s real genetic value or survival abilities. In one experiment British researchers took a group of female sand flies and allowed them no choice of sexual partner. Some were forced to copulate with males they would undoubtedly have rejected, while others were able to have it away with particularly popular males. The offspring of the unattractive sand flies were in no respect less healthy or viable than those with the sexiest fathers.

All this swagger comes at a price. The houbara bustard, a generally flightless bird of Africa and the Middle East, throws all it has into its mating dance. Brian Preston of the University of Dijon tested the virility of houbara males by having them mate with the houbara equivalent of a sex doll, a fake female with a vessel for collecting sperm. Preston discovered that the males devoting the most time and effort to their mating ritual were the first to show signs of age. Their rate of sperm production dropped far sooner than that of the more laid-back males – something of which women should perhaps be aware.

Another thing women ought to know is this: attractive males invest less in their relationships and families than their less attractive rivals. Swallow females, for example, fall for males that have long tails with lovely, endless forks, but those fine specimens aren’t such devoted fathers as swallows rather less blessed by Mother Nature. One reason may be that females invest more in the offspring of beautiful partners. Research examining various species of bird shows that the females of attractive males lay more eggs, and that their eggs are larger and heavier than those of less handsome chaps. Furthermore, the partners of attractive males are more committed to feeding their progeny, as if they unconsciously want to give the young of prime males an additional push to succeed. With so much effort on the part of his female, the beautiful male can lean back and relax. Hunks are aware of their popularity, so they can allow themselves to be lax in love. ‘Plenty more where you came from’ – that kind of thing.

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de bezige bij antwerpen

new literary non-fiction

On Chanson: ‘Bart Van Loo, a

walking encyclopaedia of song and literature, audaciously demonstrates that our musical heritage opens the door to a completely new world.’

– de morgen On The France Trilogy: ‘With this substantial work, Van Loo proves that in a short time he has grown to become one of the best essayists writing in the Dutch language.’ – knack

bart van loo (b. 1973) has developed a rare dual talent over recent years.

In the theatre he draws a full house, but above all he is the author of the universally praised France Trilogy and the bestseller Chanson. Friend and foe alike will have to admit that Van Loo is a born storyteller, with a unique ability to combine enthusiasm, humour and expertise.

Bart Van Loo Napoleon The Shadow of the Revolution ‘It is by no means easy to understand Napoleon’s achievements and influence. Anyone making the attempt has no option but to sit down and dig their way through a library of works on the subject. In trying to form an image of the man who was so crucially important at one of the pivotal moments in European history, reconstructing the story one step at a time, you bring a man and an era to life line by line.’

Napoleon fascinates us. He is one of the most influential figures in history. But he also raises a huge number of questions.

How could an ordinary Corsican manage to convince the French population that he was the figure everyone was waiting for? Who was this emperor who fought his way across Europe, leaving millions of victims in his wake, before becoming bogged down in a marshy meadow near Waterloo? Bart Van Loo goes in search of the man behind the myth and finds answers in the exciting and extremely turbulent period of the French Revolution, when the old world met its demise and everything changed. The shadow of that revolution will always hang over Napoleon.

World rights: De Bezige Bij Antwerpen.

Up-market popular historical non-fiction, illustrated 464 pages • November 2014 33

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new literary non fiction

The miraculous rebirth of an artist destroyed by Hitler ‘Organ Man caught me by surprise. I don’t know how else to put it. After a while I found myself unable to let go of this patchwork of thousands of pieces of a puzzle out of which the tragedy of two lives, those of the Jewish painter Felix Nussbaum and his wife Felka Platek, gradually emerges. The impressive biography is given an extra charge by the story told by Nussbaum’s paintings about the 1930s, about the fearful existence of tens of thousands of German exiles in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, about the hunt, the lying low, the deportations. Schaevers manages to get closer and closer to his characters until it almost takes the reader’s breath away.

Words fail me. This is a book you will never forget.’ – Geert Mak, author of a.o. In Europe, The Bridge and In America

mark schaevers (b. 1956) works as a journalist for the weekly Humo. He made his debut in 1994 with Atlas and wrote a play and several books about author Hugo Claus, including The Clouds. From the secret drawers of Hugo Claus, based on the writer’s archive. He wrote about exile in an earlier book, Ostend, the Summer of 1936 (2001)

Mark Schaevers Organ Man Felix Nussbaum. A Painter’s Life ‘Living nowhere, I roamed about with quickly noted watercolours rolled up as luggage. Switzerland, France, Paris... Until finally the Belgian border opened as my redemption. At Ostend I began working again, courageously drawing and painting.’

If there was ever a man who rose from the ashes like a phoenix then it was the painter Felix Nussbaum. In 1944 his entire existence was burned to the ground. Nothing remained of his paintings or of the great fame he had enjoyed in Berlin between the wars. But half a century after his death in Auschwitz concentration camp, a museum was founded for him in his native city of Osnabrück, and today he is regarded as one of the most important Jewish painters of the twentieth century.

It is a wonderful story that largely takes place in the Low Countries, yet it has waited until now for a narrator. Mark Schaevers follows Nussbaum on his wanderings through the Nazi years, from Rome to the Italian Riviera, from Paris to Ostend and Brussels. Along the way he looks at the many paintings in which Nussbaum expressed as no one else has done what it is like to be an artist in exile, an organ man without an echo.

World rights: De Bezige Bij Non-fiction, illustrated 320 pages 35

oog & blik

new graphic novels

Co-production opportunities! ‘...if Harry Mulisch could have drawn, he would have done it like this!’ – Kitty Saal (Harry Mulisch’ widow) Press on The Assault by Harry Mulisch:

‘Brilliant. Astonishingly depicted.’ – John Updike

milan hulsing (b. 1973) graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. His drawings and cartoon strips have appeared in the VPRO TV guide, Hollands Maandblad and the Algemeen Dagblad.

He twice won a Stripschapspenning award and has created animations for films.

His most recent graphic novel, City of Clay, was extremely well received by reviewers and the rights have been sold in several countries.

Milan Hulsing The Assault Graphic novel based on one of the most famous and best-loved Dutch literary novels by Harry Mulisch In May 2015 a colourful and idiosyncratic graphic novel will be published, based on a timeless classic. Award-winning artist Milan Hulsing manages to combine Harry Mulisch’s lucid narrative with dark but often colourful drawings that perfectly reflect the atmosphere of this richly rewarding book.

The Assault tells the exciting and tragic story of Anton Steenwijk, who loses his father, mother and brother at a young age in a German reprisal for the killing of a policeman. In adult life he seeks out those involved in an effort to discover what really happened.

When first published in 1982, The Assault met with a rapturous reception in the press. It was a major success and quickly found a large readership at home and abroad. No fewer than a million copies have been sold worldwide.

World rights: Oog & Blik Full colour graphic novel • 160 pages, May 2015 37

oog & blik

new graphic novels

Aimée de Jongh The Return of the Honey Buzzard ‘Every day I ask myself: what would have happened if I’d intervened?’

Simon Antonisse is a book dealer in times of economic crisis who is forced to shut up shop because of poor sales. Tragedy strikes when he witnesses a suicide while out driving. It hits him like a bomb. Memories from childhood trouble him more and more, and Simon’s life is gradually transformed into a turbulent dream. Only Regina, a young girl he comes upon by chance, can give him the peace and love he longs for.

aimée de jongh (b. 1988) is regarded as one of the most talented of young Dutch graphic novelists. Ever since finishing her studies as an animator in 2011 she has worked full time as a comic strip artist, illustrator and animator for film and television. The Return of the Honey Buzzard is her first graphic novel.

World rights: Oog & Blik • English sample available.

Graphic novel, b&w, 160 pages 39

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Shortlisted for the AKO Literature Prize 2014!

‘The perceptive Hertmans has given voice not only to his grandfather but to an entire generation.’ **** – de volkskrant ‘With War and Turpentine Stefan Hertmans has written one of the most moving books of the year.’ ***** – de standaard ‘It’s a masterpiece.’ **** – humo

stefan hertmans (1951) has published novels, short story collections, essays and poetry. In 1995 he was awarded the three-yearly Flemish poetry prize. He has also received two nominations for the vsb Poetry Prize. His novel The Hidden Tissue (2008), received unanimous praise.

Stefan Hertmans War and Turpentine About the poignant life of a grandfather, wwi and a devastating love Shortly before his death in the 1980s, ­Stefan Hertmans’ grandfather gave him a couple of old notebooks. For years he was afraid to open them, but when he did he stumbled across some unexpected secrets. His grandfather’s life was marked by his impoverished childhood in pre-1900 ­Ghent, by gruesome experiences as a soldier on the front during wwi and by a great love who died young. For the rest of his life he converted his grief into tranquil paintings. In an attempt to get to the bottom of his grandfather’s life Hertmans wrote down the memories he had of the man. He quotes from the diaries and analyses the paintings. Hertmans tells the story with the kind of imaginative power only great writers possess, and in a form that leaves an indelible impression. War and Turpentine is a poignant search for a life that coincided with the tragic events of the 20th century and is an attempt to give a posthumous, almost mythical expression to that life.

World rights: De Bezige Bij • English sample translation and synopsis available Winner of the Flemish Culture Award for Literature, shortlisted for the Libris Literature Prize, the Golden Book Owl and the Davidsfonds History Prize Rights sold: Hanser Berlin (Germany), Gallimard (France), Alfred A. Knopf (North America), Harvill Secker (UK), Text (ANZ), Marsilio (Italy), People’s Press (Denmark), Heliks (Serbia), Pax (Norway), Norstedts (Sweden), Fraktura (Croatia), Európa (Hungary), Beletrina (Slovenia), Marginesy (Poland).

Fiction 334 pages 41

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successful titles

Ruben Mersch Blinkered Thinking

Why we’re all idiots ‘Blinkered Thinking is both entertaining and informative. Ruben Mersch combines keen observations of human error with scientific knowledge.’ – skipr

We are lazy in our thinking. We usually believe the first thing that occurs to us, without any further thought. We usually believe whatever our inner idiot whispers in our ear.

‘Surprising, impressive and funny [...] an excellent book which many will read with a degree of discomfort.’ – liberales

-

ruben mersch (b. 1976) studied philosophy and biology at the University of Ghent. After graduating, a twist of fate landed him in the pharmaceutical industry. But fed up with turning disease into profit, he decided to do something useful with his life: to teach people how to think for themselves. For Blinkered Thinking he received the so-called (pdw)-trophy, an award for spreading objective knowledge and fighting pseudo-science and the paranormal.

What does Warren Buffet have in common with a monkey writing Hamlet?

- Why are we more afraid of sharks than of bathtubs?

- How do you prove that drain cleaners can cure cancer?

- Why are expensive medicines better than cheap ones?

We like to think we’re rational beings, but are we really? Blinkered Thinking goes in search of the pitfalls of our thinking and unmasks the idiot inside each one of us.

It’s that inner idiot that makes us susceptible to the half-truths and whole lies that permeate our daily lives – from investments and football to anti-depressants and anti-oxidants. But you can silence your inner idiot and take off your blinkers. There’s a way of distinguishing between truth and nonsense: through thinking. Knowledge is power. It’s up to you to grab that power.

World rights: De Bezige Bij Antwerpen • Rights sold: Goldmann (Germany) Popular non-fiction: psychology, 287 pages 43

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‘Erwin Mortier is a stylist through and through, but beneath his stylistic tour de force is a wealth of history and significance. [...]

The subtlety with which Mortier brings together aesthetics and tragedy and lays out his narrative is breathtaking. Everything in this novel is precisely on target. Our verdict, in one word?

Masterly.’ ***** – de standaard ‘Mortier writes beautifully about clandestine love in wartime. Every sentence is both poetic and powerful.’ – elsevier

erwin mortier (1965) made his literary debut in 1999 with the novel Marcel (awarded, among other things, with the Gerard Walschap Literature Prize). His novel Sleep of the Gods appeared in 2008, signaling his breakthrough to a broader reading public, winning him the 2009 AKO Literature Prize. Winner of the 2013 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, catégorie essai, for A Stammered Songbook (Psaumes balbutiés. Livre des heures de ma mère).

Erwin Mortier The Reflections ‘I love my secrets. They understand me better than anyone and they’re not loose-lipped. Our most essential secrets are those that remain concealed even from us.’

The Reflections adds a new panel to Erwin Mortier’s panorama of Belgium. Edgard Demont, born from the mud of World War I, returns physically and emotio­nally wounded to a native country which will never be the same again. In search of a safe place among the confusion and destruction he finds that lovers are more effective than medication in helping him live with injuries that go deeper than the scars on his flesh. Meanwhile there is nothing he can do as his country succumbs to new delusions and further nightmares appear on the horizon.

World rights: De Bezige Bij • English sample translation available Fiction, 304 pages 45

tomas ross crime

successful titles

A new voice in Dutch crime fiction, in the tradition of Ken Follet and Philip Kerr

Shadow Prize and Golden Noose Award Winner of the Shadow Prize for best thrilling debut and of the Golden Noose Award 2014 for best thriller

Donald Nolet Encrypted He felt two pricks to his chest. Then it was as if a hundred thousand ants were walking all over his body, each of them injecting him with poison at the same time.

He felt his muscles burning, lost all control over his body and fell to the ground.

It’s late November 1941. At the radio station in Langeveld, a German radio technician intercepts a secret code message intended for the White House. A week later all hell breaks loose in Pearl Harbor. More than seventy years later Joshua Lambert discovers that his grandfather’s real name was Walter Gruber, and that he was a German soldier stationed in the Netherlands during the occupation. Following the country’s liberation he suddenly vanished. Joshua’s exploration of his family history leads him to one of the biggest secrets of World War ii. In a nerve-racking race against time, which ultimately takes him to Argentina, the shadows from the past turn out to be alive and well.

donald nolet (1975) studied Japanese in Leiden. Since graduating he has worked as an advertising copywriter.

Encrypted is his debut.

World rights: Tomas Ross Crime Winner of the debut Shadow Prize and the Golden Noose Award 2014 Thriller, 288 pages 47

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‘You don’t even need to make a list to see that Peter Terrin is one of the handful of truly interesting authors writing in Dutch.’ ****nrc handelsblad

‘A flawless novel. (...) Terrin proves himself more than deserving of his wide readership. (...) Monte Carlo is a small masterpiece.’ – de tijd ‘Terrin raises the bar of Flemish literature slightly higher still with this jewel that glitters like a freshly cut diamond.

Astonishingly perfect sentences and a composition of Swiss quality.’ – knack

peter terrin (1968) is the author of two short story collections and four novels.

The Guard won the European Union Prize for Literature and made the longlist of both the Gouden Uil and AKO prizes, and the shortlist of the Libris Literature Prize 2010.

Post-mortem (2012) won him the AKO Literature Prize.

His work has been translated in numerous languages.

Peter Terrin Monte Carlo An electrifying novel about heroism, nostalgia and the desire to be seen

Monaco, May 1968. Just before the start of the Formula 1 Grand Prix, when the beau monde mingles with the drivers and their racing cars before the eyes of the world press, the entire grandstand is witness to a terrible incident. Within seconds, two people are caught up in an accident which will change their lives forever: from now on Jack Preston, a simple mechanic for Team Lotus, will bear the scars from which he shielded Deedee, a budding film star and embodiment of the new social mores. At home with his wife, in a remote English village where the 1950s are slow to recede, Jack waits full of longing for a sign of Deedee’s gratitude, while following her meteoric rise on television.

In a style that oozes restraint Peter Terrin showcases his rich and evocative imagi­nation.

World rights: De Bezige Bij • English sample translation available Rights sold: Iperborea (Italy), MacLehose Press (World English), Rayo Verde (Spanish and Catalan), Berlin Verlag (Germany) Fiction 176 pages 49

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Shortlisted for the AKO Literature Prize 2014!

‘Choke Valley is the seventh jewel in Frank Westerman’s crown; a great European author, a writer of literature.’

– de volkskrant

‘Each and every one of the stories Westerman digs up is brilliant. Choke Valley is a real success as a book. The search for and gathering together of stories was an excellent plan that has been very well executed. Enthusiasm is paramount.’ **** – nrc handelsblad

frank westerman (1964) studied tropical agricultural engineering at Wageningen University. He was a correspondent for de Volkskrant and NRC Handelsblad in Belgrade and Moscow. His books include The Blackest Scenario (1995), about the fall of Srebrenica, The Republic of Grain (1999), Engineers of the Soul (2002), Ararat (2007) and Brother Mendel’s Perfect Horse (2010). His books have received many awards and nominations both at home and abroad. El Negro and Me (2004) won him the Golden Owl Literature Prize in 2005.

Frank Westerman Choke Valley On the origin of stories 21 August 1986: in the evening, at full moon, all life in a valley in northwest Cameroon is wiped out. Chickens, baboons, zebus and birds drop dead in the grass – as do two thousand men, women and children. But not before they try to tear the clothes off their bodies. There are no signs of other damage: huts and palm trees are intact. These are the facts. But what happened?

Thirty-six hours after the catastrophe, two Dutch missionaries are the first to descend into the valley of death. In the days that follow, scientists from Japan, Hawaii and Iceland are dropped off in the disaster zone by helicopter. From the edge of the valley, the African survivors look on in complete bewilderment.

Choke Valley deconstructs every single aspect of this mysterious mass death. In his customary, evocative style, Frank Westerman looks at the same event from three different angles. He guides the reader through the jungle of stories which has grown out of the compost of facts in the space of twenty-five years. What words and images have attached themselves to the facts and how have they developed into new myths? How do stories come into being?

World rights: De Bezige Bij • English sample translation available Rights sold: Iperborea (Italy), Bourgois (France), Leopard (Sweden), Siruela (Spain) • Literary narrative non-fiction, 320 pages 51

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‘Wieringa’s masterful depiction of a faltering ***** – de volkskrant

marriage’

‘A magician at work.’ ***** – de morgen ‘With his lyrical, sobre dialogue, restrained ambience, formed with well-chosen, evocative words, the author doses drama but the cruelty always pops up with an unexpected blow.’ **** – corriere della sera

tommy wieringa (1967) is the author of the best-selling novels Joe Speedboat, Little Caesar (shortlisted for the Impac Literary Award 2013) and These Are The Names (winner of the Libris Literature Prize 2013). His work has been published in more than fifteen countries and has garnered high praise, both at home and abroad. Wieringa is ranked the most important Dutch author of 2013 on a new author rank list (Editio top 35) which ranks critical acclaim, sales numbers, international success and public profile.

Tommy Wieringa A Beautiful Young Woman He never married and was never with the same woman for long, he has always remained a collector of first times.

Edward Landauer, a brilliant microbiolo­ gist in his forties, meets a beautiful young woman. She is the love of his life and when the two marry in France, Edward is the happiest man in the world. Ruth Walta appears to represent a victory over time, but even she cannot stop him growing older. And before long, their marriage descends into a clash between her idealism and his realism. Edward’s research relies on animal testing, whereas Ruth is troubled by the animals’ fear and confusion.

It takes the couple a long time to conceive and it is not until they have started going through the motions that Ruth finally falls pregnant. After the birth of their son, the ‘happiness, delicate like filigree’ turns to despair, as the baby won’t stop crying. The sleepless nights cause an even greater rift between Edward and Ruth. Ruth distances herself and banishes him from her bed, while Edward no longer recognizes the woman he fell in love with. Constantly aware of his decline, Edward tries to find a new balance in the arms of another young woman. Slowly but surely life as he knew it slips through his fingers, and he learns the meaning of real pain, true suffering.

World rights: De Bezige Bij • English sample translation available Rights sold: Hanser (Germany), Actes Sud (France), Iperborea (Italy), Scribe (UK/ANZ), Scribe (ANZ, UK), Libri (Hungary), Edhasa (Argentina).

Fiction, 96 pages 53

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‘A relentless page-turner.’ – de pers ‘Unbearably tense.’ – vrij nederland ‘A first-class thriller.’ – algemeen dagblad ‘An audacious novel with an appeal reminiscent of Mulisch.’ – de volkskrant

leon de winter (b. 1954) became known in the early 1980s with subdued, intellectual novels like Zoeken naar Eileen W (Looking for Eileen W.) and La Place de la Bastille.

Kaplan (1986), SuperTex (1991), Zionoco (1995) and God’s Gym (2002) each became bestsellers.

De Winter invariably writes about a man in a crisis, searching for his (Jewish) roots and being forced to make existential choices.

De Winter is a high-profile political commentator, whose columns and essays have been published in Dutch periodicals and newspapers, as well as in Die Welt and Der Spiegel in Germany . In 2012 the novel VSV was published.

Leon de Winter The Right of Return Clever, beautiful, nightmarish

The year is 2024, the place Tel Aviv. Israel has been reduced to a heavily guarded city state. There, on that desolate strip of land, Bram Mannheim runs an office that helps parents to find their lost children. His own young son disappeared sixteen years earlier. In his free time he works as a volunteer for the ambulance service. After an attack on a border post causes carnage, Bram makes a discovery that will change his life profoundly once again.

A dazzling novel by an author of international bestsellers, about hope and despair, madness and self-deception, amid the ruins of a human life.

US rights: De Bezige Bij Rights sold: Diogenes (Switzerland), Marcos y Marcos (Italy), Turbine (Denmark), Oden (Czechia), Mosty Kultury/Gesharim (Russia). Nominated for both the AKO Literature Prize and the NS Prize of the General Public.

Novel, 589 pages 55

preview 2015

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preview 2015

Yves Petry Love In a Manner of Speaking

Ernest van der Kwast The Ice-Cream Makers

A curious family novel about a dangerous triangular relationship and unusual fatherhood.

About an Italian ice-cream dynasty, traditions, ambitions, and lemon sorbet melting on your tongue.

By the author of The Virgin Marino (Libris Literature Prize 2011)

By the author of Mama Tandoori

Novel, 336 pages • January 2015

Novel, 304 pages • January 2015 57

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de bezige bij at the frankfurt book fair 2014 Henk Prรถpper Director/ Publisher Francien Schuursma Director Author Management and Communication Suzanne Holtzer s.holtzer@debezigebij.nl Editor-in-chief fiction Haye Koningsveld h.koningsveld@debezigebij.nl Editor-in-chief non-fiction Marije de Bie m.de.bie@debezigebij.nl Editor translated fiction De Bezige Bij Peter van der Zwaag p.van.der.zwaag@debezigebij.nl Editor-in-chief translated fiction De Bezige Bij and Oog & Blik Harold Polis h.polis@debezigebijantwerpen.be Publisher De Bezige Bij Antwerpen

Melissa van der Wagt m.van.der.wagt@debezigebij.nl Publisher Cargo (Slaughterhouse; Tomas Ross Crime) Marjolein Schurink m.schurink@debezigebij.nl Editor-in-chief Cargo Chris Kooi c.kooi@debezigebij.nl Editor Cargo Jacques Schalken j.schalken@ debezigebij.nl Editor De Bezige Bij non-fiction Catharina Schilder c.schilder@debezigebij.nl Editor De Bezige Bij non-fiction Uta Matten u.matten@debezigebij.nl Foreign rights manager Marijke Nagtegaal m.nagtegaal@debezigebij.nl Foreign rights manager

Arend Hosman a.hosman@thomasrap.nl Editor-in-chief Thomas Rap For the latest (foreign) rights news, please visit us at our stand in Hall 5.0 c6