ERNEST VA N D E R KWA S T
YVES PETRY
S T E FA N H E RT M A N S B E RT N AT T E R
Foreign Rights Guide London Book Fair 2015
EWOUD KIEFT
GERARD REVE
De Bezige Bij The Busy Bee
JA N DROST
M.M. SCHOENMAKERS
JA N ARENDS
DIRK DRAULANS
PETER VERMEERSCH
AD FRANSEN
MILAN HULSING
NS HA TZLER NI SCH
GEERT LANGENDORFF
foreign rights guide london book fair 2015
KEE S VAN BEI JNU M
ARNOLD VA N D E L AAR
ERW IN MORTIE R
E A I M ÉN G H DE JO
Gerard Reve Jan Arends
Jan Drost Ewoud Kieft Hans Schnitzler Dirk Draulans Peter Vermeersch Geert Langendorff
PETER TERRIN M SCHA ARK EVER
S
A N I TA A TERPSTR
TO W I E RM M Y INGA
LEON ER DE WINT
Ernest van der Kwast Stefan Hertmans Yves Petry M.M. Schoenmakers Ad Fransen Bert Natter
HAGAR PEETE RS
new literary fiction The Ice-Cream Makers Harder Than Snow Love, So To Speak The Cloud Knight Daddy’s Boy Remington
4 10 12 14 16 18
modern classics The Evenings Keefman
20 22
new literary non-fiction Thinking Helps War Enthusiasm. Europe 1900-1918 The Digital Proletariat The Power of the Minuscule Ex. About a Country Gone Missing Different Cook
24 26 28 30 32 34
new graphic novel Milan Hulsing/ Harry Mulisch
Kees van Beijnum Aimée de Jongh Arnold van de Laar Erwin Mortier Mark Schaevers Anita Terpstra Peter Terrin Tommy Wieringa
Hagar Peeters Leon de Winter
The Assault
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successful titles Sacrifice The Return of the Honey Buzzard Under the Knife The Reflections Organ Man. Felix Nussbaum. A Painter’s Life Different Monte Carlo A Beautiful Young Woman
40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54
autumn preview Malva Geronimo
56 57
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new literary fiction
‘Van der Kwast is simply magnificent when he describes the voluptuousness of pretty girls: you can feel the curves under your fingers. I want to sleep with all of these paper women. There are some truly moving scenes in The Ice-Cream Makers.’ – humo ‘The passion for making good ice-cream, the alchemy of creating a new flavour and the historical background of ice cream makers who used to make their ice-cream from mountain snow lend this page-turner its charm.’ – dagblad van het noorden ‘A moving story about two brothers growing **** – algemeen dagblad
apart.’
ernest van der kwast (1981) made his breakthrough with the novel Mama Tandoori, which became a bestseller in the Netherlands and Italy and sold more than 100,000 copies. In 2012 he published the novella Gio vanna’s Navel, which entered the Der Spiegel bestseller list immediately after publication in Germany (Mare Verlag) in spring 2015.
Ernest van der Kwast The Ice-Cream Makers A dazzling novel about an Italian ice-cream dynasty, tradition, ambition, and the sensation of lemon sorbet melting on your tongue In the far north of Italy lies the valley of the ice-cream makers: about a dozen villages where, for generations, people have specialized in making ice cream. Giuseppe Talamini claims it was actually invented here. Every spring his family sets off for the ice-cream parlour in Rotterdam, returning to the mountains only in winter. Eldest son Giovanni Talamini decides to break with this tradition by pursuing a literary career. But then one day his younger brother Luca approaches him with a highly unusual request. Now Giovanni faces a dilemma: serve the family’s interests one last time or choose his own path in life, once and for all.
World rights: De Bezige Bij • English sample available Rights sold: btb Verlag (Germany) • Novel, 301 pages • 2015 Featured title in 10 Books from Holland (Dutch Foundation for Literature) 5
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Translated from the Dutch by Laura Vroomen
1.
H
ow my father lost his heart to a hammer thrower weighing 83 kilos
Shortly before his eightieth birthday, my father fell in love. It was love at first sight; love like a bolt from the blue, lightning striking a tree. My mother phoned me. ‘Beppi has lost his mind,’ she said. It happened during a live broadcast of the London Olympics. During the women’s hammer throwing final, to be precise. Since my father had a satellite dish installed on the roof he has been able to receive more than a thousand channels. He spends whole days in front of the TV – a beautiful flat screen – and presses the button of the remote control in a consistently high tempo. Flashing past are football matches in Japan, Arctic nature documentaries, Spanish arthouse films, reports on disasters in El Salvador, Tajikistan and Fiji. And of course gorgeous and glorious women from around the world. Buxom Brazilian presenters, near-naked Greek showgirls, news broadcasters whose bulletins, quite apart from the language (Macedonian? Slovenian?), are lost on you because of their full, glossy lips. There are usually some five or six seconds between the channels my father alights on. But sometimes he lingers and spends a whole evening and half a night watching coverage of the Mexican elections or a documentary series about the tropical waters of Polynesia, green like a gem. It was a Turkish sports channel that my father had stumbled across, having just pressed the button of the remote with his callused thumb. The Egyptian soap which in five seconds had homed in on just as many melodramatic women’s faces had failed to beguile him. So Beppi pressed the button, which had once been black, then grey and now white, practically transparent. And that’s when he was struck by lightning. There on the screen appeared his princess: skin as white as cream, coral-red hair and the biceps of a butcher. She entered the circle in the Olympic Stadium, grabbed the handle at the end of the chain, raised the ball over her left shoulder and turned once, twice, three times, four times, five times before hurling the iron ball with all the strength she could muster. A meteor that has survived entry into the atmosphere, and buzzes and fizzes through the steel-blue skies of London. On impact, a brown hole in a meticulously cut lawn.
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My father dropped his remote control. The lid at the back came loose, and one battery rolled across the wooden floor. The Turkish commentator was full of praise about the throw, but the sing-song words were lost on my father. The repeat showed his broad-shouldered ballerina a second time. Her pirouette, as it gathered speed and ended in a brief, but surprisingly elegant curtsey. It felt as if he had been spinning around as well. Faster and faster. And now he was sitting here on his sofa, shattered and in love, as if he’d been hit on the head by the eight-pound ball. Her name was Betty Heidler and she was the world record holder, broken by 112 centimetres a year ago at an international competition in Halle, Germany. It had been a warm day in May; hardly any wind, sun glasses, short sleeves. With a spring in her step the athlete made her way to the circle with the green nets, and almost casually threw an astronomical distance. The hammer didn’t leave a crater, but bounced a couple of times, like the pebbles children throw across the water of the nearby Hufeisen Lake. In between the major competitions, she worked for the police force, wearing a dark-blue uniform with four stars on both epaulettes, her red hair in a tight bun. Polizeihauptmeisterin Heidler. In London Betty Heidler threw a distance that was to earn her a bronze medal, but the measuring system malfunctioned, so it couldn’t be determined right away. It took forty minutes before a decision was reached. These forty minutes were like a romantic film to my father. Swooning, he watched the red-headed hammer thrower, who kept being shown, sometimes close to tears. Her rival, the fleshy Chinese Zhang Wenxiu, had already embarked on a lap of honour, the red flag with the yellow stars wrapped around her broad shoulders. ‘No! Not the ten-ton Chinese!’ my father yelled. The Turkish commentator was a bit more nuanced about it, but he too was of the opinion that Betty Heidler, not Zhang Wenxiu, deserved the bronze. Incidentally, the Chinese athlete weighed 113 kilos, but that was still a full thirty kilos more than the ginger hammer nymph. ‘Get rid of the flag,’ my father said. ‘You bloated old meatball!’
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And when Betty Heidler appeared on screen: ‘Don’t cry, my little princess. Don’t be sad, dear, fleet-footed lady.’ It was an epitheton ornans, unwittingly dug up from the past, going back thirty-five years, to the time I was in grammar school and to everybody’s shock started expressing myself in the colourful adjectives of the blind poet. According to my father it sowed the seeds for the distance between me and my family. Or as he likes to put it: ‘That’s where it all went wrong.’ My epithets used to drive him mad: the prettily-tressed girls I flirted with, the cloud-wrapped buildings my mother wasn’t fond of, the wine-purple cherry ice cream he prepared. And now he used one himself for his creamy-armed hammer thrower. The broadcaster switched to an advert for hairspray. A bride came into view with a hairdo that looked like it would stay in place for at least a week. ‘Betty! Come back!’ my father shouted at the flat screen, on which, in high definition and in slow motion, the spray was misted across the chestnut curls of the smiling bride. His thumb moved of its own accord, the callused old thumb, the thumb which for years had hooked itself around the metal handle of the spatolone, the large ladle with which the ice is scooped out of the cylinders of the Cattabriga. ‘Oh, Betty,’ my father sighed, echoing the many men who’d uttered the same name with yearning. Betty Garrett, Betty Hutton, Betty Grable. Enchanting actresses, nearly forgotten names. The film starring the hammer thrower resumed. She was sitting on a bench on the orangey-red surface inside the arena and staring into the middle distance, looking disconsolate. Meanwhile the commentator nattered on. Every now and then, my father thought he recognized the names of athletes, but they may well have been Turkish words. He knew the satellite had plenty of other channels that broadcast the competition. In Danish, in German, in Italian, in Dutch. But the remote was on the floor and he didn’t want to start zapping. He didn’t want to miss a second. Was that a tear? A silver droplet under her left eye? It was a film and he had to say something to her, comfort her. My mother, meanwhile, was standing in the doorway of the small room where the television hung on the wall like a painting.
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new literary fiction
She’d heard her husband talking and had called out from her kitchen: ‘Beppi? What’s wrong?’ My father’s name is Giuseppe Battista Talamini, but my mother’s called him Beppi her whole life. ‘I love you,’ my father said. It had been twenty, thirty, maybe even forty years since my mother had heard these words from my father’s lips. ‘What was that you said?’ ‘I love you,’ my father replied. ‘I think you’re beautiful.’ My mother was silent. Betty Heidler still had tears in her eyes. ‘Your freckles, your powerful arms... I want to kiss your muscles.’ ‘What’s wrong? Aren’t you feeling well?’ It slowly dawned on her. The first part of his answer was aimed at the screen, the second at his wife in the doorway: ‘You’re the love of my life. Get lost!’ At long last the chair of the jury, a woman with a wide band around her sleeve, shook Betty Heidler’s hand. Slowly, like ice cream melting, a smile stole over her face. An embrace followed. But by the time that happened, my mother was already back in the kitchen, where a lone pan of mince was simmering on the stove. Tomorrow was Saturday: pasticcio, glasses filled with light red wine, the afternoon spreading like a stain. It was a secret known to everybody that lasagne, like tiramisu, tastes better when you let it rest overnight. Shouts of joy could be heard from the television room. ‘Yes! She’s won! Betty’s got bronze!’ my father exclaimed. ‘Yes! Yes!’ When he started jumping up and down, happy as a child, my mother phoned me. In spring and summer she always calls me when something’s up. That’s when my brother Luca is at work. It’s an image my memory automatically conjures up: when I hear my mother’s voice down the line, I picture Luca behind the ice cream in Rotterdam.
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literary fiction
From the author of War and Turpentine: a disturbingly topical novel about fundamentalism and terrorism (2004) On War and Turpentine: ‘Rarely has a more moving and sensitive bridge been built between two different eras.’ – süddeutsche zeitung ‘A European masterpiece of a calibre you no longer thought possible.’ – Author Jens Christian Grøndahl
‘It’s a masterpiece.’ **** – humo
stefan hertmans (1951) has published novels, short story collections, essays and poetry. In 1995 he won the three-yearly Flemish Poetry Prize. For his novel Oorlog en terpentijn (War and Turpentine) he was awarded the AKO Literature Prize and the Flemish Cultural Award for Literature. War and Turpentine was also shortlisted for the Libris Literature Prize, The Golden Book Owl and the Davidsfonds History Prize, and will be translated into at least sixteen languages.
Stefan Hertmans Harder than Snow ‘In Harder than Snow there are passages that for personal reasons I will never forget. Descriptions of emotions that regularly catch you unaware, but for which as a simple soul you have never found the words.’ – de morgen
John de Vuyst’s quiet existence is brought to an abrupt end when he receives two mysterious letters in one day in a language he does not understand. Less than twentyfour hours later a powerful bomb explodes on the second floor of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, followed by a massive explosion in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. His life gains momentum when De Vuyst discovers that there is a direct link between the letters addressed to him and the terrorist attack by previously unknown fundamentalists.
World Rights: De Bezige Bij • English sample available Novel, 304 pages • 2004, 3rd printing March 2015 11
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Literature that’s saturated with feeling ‘Every single sentence is assured and effective, from the briefest reflection to the most drawn-out paragraph.’ **** – de volkskrant ‘Petry is not a prophet and offers no certainties. He has written a vivid and tantalising novel which is almost Nabokovian, a bold stylistic statement that lifts you out of your comfort zone. **** – de morgen ‘An intelligent novel about creativity and life, about choices and identity. Yves Petry’s writing blends philosophy and satire in a virtuoso manner.’ – cobra.be
yves petry (1967) studied mathematics and philosophy. He made his debut in 1999 with Het jaar van de man (The Year of the Man), a novel about a young antihero with a lethargic lifestyle. In the year De achterblijver (The Straggler) was published, Yves Petry was awarded the BNG Literature Prize for his entire oeuvre. De maagd Marino (The Virgin Marino), Petry’s fifth novel, won the prestigious Libris Literature Prize in 2011. Love, So To Speak has just been published to great acclaim from the press.
Yves Petry Love, So To Speak ‘We lived, we strayed, and some of us are now dead. The story I can make of it begins around twenty-six years ago, on the last Saturday of 1986, the day on which Jasper Fielinckx lost both his parents.’
Alex Jespers, the author of a phenomenally successful novel but now past his prime, realizes that he has an almost impossible job on his hands trying to explain how, more than twenty years ago, he got caught up in a love triangle with Jasper and Kristien Fielinckx, a brother and sister who lost their parents in a car accident when they were teenagers. If that story was about love, then what is love about? It will be even harder to ascertain what caused the relationship between the three to derail so spectacularly – with indelible consequences.
World rights: De Bezige Bij • English sample with support from the Flemish Literature Fund • Novel, 335 pages • 2015 13
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new literary fiction
In search of the significance and value of his strangulating existence, a man chooses to disappear ‘Schoenmakers is an exceptional presence in Dutch literature.’ – nrc handelsblad ‘Contemporary, psychological and straight from the heart.’ – zin ‘You won’t forget this book in a hurry, since it touches upon our humanity, our need to feel a bond with those of like mind. On top of all that it is beautifully written.’ – dwdd (tv show)
m.m. schoenmakers (1949) graduated from Tilburg University and in 1977 left for Suriname, where he worked with native communities in the interior. In 1989 he returned to the Netherlands. His years in Suriname are reflected in five novels, of which the most recent, Het zwaard van goud en liefde (The Sword of Gold and Love), was published in 1998.
M.M. Schoenmakers The Cloud Knight ‘It was around eight o’clock on a weekday, a Tuesday, and the figurative gate of his marriage was a few metres away from him, which is to say at the end of the skewed, two-tile-wide path across the front garden to the pavement, five angry steps from the door.’
It’s an ordinary evening in September when Gerlof Verdegaal, a forty-nine-year-old urban planner walks out of his house with a few sparse possessions in a kit bag, leaving his wife and children behind. He sets up a simple shelter next to an electricity substation in a city park, as a stopping point on his journey. But the past con tinues to tug at him. The image keeps returning to him of that moment in the hall, the last time he spoke to his wife, turned round and left. Did he leave of his own accord, or was he sent away?
M.M. Schoenmakers
De wolkenridder
World rights: De Bezige Bij • Novel, 254 pages • 2015 15
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new literary fiction
On 20 April, ten years after the war, his father named him Adolf On previous work: ‘The style of this writer is as rough and worn as Keith Richards’ face. Two questions remain after Fransen has brought this adventure smoothly to a conclusion: Why didn’t he start writing sooner? Why hasn’t he written more? – de volkskrant ‘The height of authenticity.’ – de groene amsterdammer
‘Driving pace; wryly humorous.’ – trouw ad fransen (1955) is a journalist and writer. He has published, among other things, a portrait of the author Gerard Reve, Hoe Reve zijn verjaar dag vierde (The Latter Years of Gerard Reve); a candid account of his coke addition, Coke, which was reprinted numerous times, and Het meisje met de mooiste heupen (The Girl with the Prettiest Hips). He has also written a bio graphy of the author Willem Frederik Hermans, entitled W.F. Hermans, een Hollander in Parijs (W.F. Hermans, A Dutchman in Paris).
Ad Fransen Daddy’s Boy “You’re not going wash the dirty laundry in public, are you?” “Of course, father, what did you think?” Only now that his parents are dead is Ad Fransen able to write about his upbringing and to lift the lid on his ‘dodgy’ father. He writes candidly about his father’s family, who surrendered heart and soul to the Germans and used the war for their personal enrichment. Fransen’s grandparents idolized Adolf Hitler and took pride in offering their own sons up as cannon fodder: enlisting in the ss was actively encouraged in this family. With a light touch Fransen writes about the shameful past that has governed his life. He concludes that after the war his father’s youthful indiscretion continued to haunt him and was a burden on the family. Daddy’s Boy resonates with the question: will you be guided by the truth or by compassion for the father you love, in spite of everything?
World Rights: De Bezige Bij • Faction, 224 pages Forthcoming: April 2015 17
thomas rap
new literary fiction
A father, a son, an old Mercedes and four hundred kilometres to go
‘A born storyteller.’ – de groene amsterdammer ‘Intimate story [...] Beautiful, tightly composed book.’ – tros nieuwsshow
A
‘Remington is ingeniously constructed. fine generational novel. As far as observation goes, Natter can now be called a worthy successor to Bernlef.’ – literatuurplein bert natter (1968) made his debut in 2008 with Begeerte heeft ons aangeraakt (Desire Has Touched Us), which won him the Selexyz Debut Prize and the Lucy B. en C.W. van der Hoogt Prize. In 2012 he published Hoe staat het met de liefde? (What’s the Story with Love?) about which the author Maarten ’t Hart said: ‘A clever, successful demonstration of an exceptional narrative talent.’
Bert Natter Remington ‘I can’t see my father any longer. In the rear view mirror the Polish truck is still driving behind me. I have to go on with the rest of the traffic, to the other side.’
An elderly, celebrated poet has returned to his native city of Hamburg to write his last collection. He rings his son, a successful artist, to ask him to come and fetch him. In an almost vintage Mercedes they travel across Germany and the Netherlands. Along the way astonishing and very ordinary things happen. They revive memories and experience more intimate moments than they have ever known before. The journey goes slowly but well, until the defenceless old poet does something on the Afsluitdijk causeway that leaves his son totally baffled.
World Rights: Thomas Rap • Novel, 221 pages • 2015 19
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modern classics
‘From the first sentence right to the end, The Evenings addresses the meaninglessness of life. It is Reve’s great merit that for Frits there is still hope and for the reader more to laugh at than in any other Dutch novel.’ – nrc handelsblad ‘The Evenings, a provocative and intelligent work, could be described as the Dutch equivalent of Camus’ The Stranger. But the protagonist’s profound desire for meaning combined with the alienating and indefinable atmosphere make it absolutely unique.’ – Daniel Seton, acquiring editor, pushkin press
gerard reve’s (1923-2006) most widely read book by is his first novel De avonden. The much reprinted and controversial epistolary books Op weg naar het einde (On My Way to the End) and Nader tot U (Nearer to Thee), in which Reve opened his heart about his homosexuality and his conversion to Catholicism, were instrumental in establishing the author as a public figure in the Netherlands. Over the years he published a series of autobiographical epistolary books and several novels: Oud en eenzaam (Old and Lonely), Moeder en Zoon (Mother and Son), Bezorgde Ouders (Parents Worry). Reve was awarded the P.C. Hooft Prize in 1968 and the Dutch Literature Prize (Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren) in 2001.
Gerard Reve The Evenings One of the clearest watersheds between pre-war and post-war Dutch literature
The Evenings (1947) is one of the most important books in Dutch literature. Now a classic, it is a grip ping description of the monotony that held sway over the Netherlands in the post-war years. It tells the story of Frits van Egters, who in the dark December days just after wwii strikes attitudes when faced with his parents and friends. A grey haze of melancholy lies over everything, and with his wayward sense of humour he tries to break through the armour of boredom. In the enthralling closing chapter he reaches the sobering insight that by looking and observing he has warded off meaninglessness: ‘It has been seen; it has not gone unnoticed.’
World rights: De Bezige Bij • Rights sold: Pushkin Press (World English) The book has previously been published in several countries but rights are available in many territories • Novel, 288 pages • 1947 21
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modern classics
‘It is not too much of a stretch to call him “mad”, and even “genius” is perfectly appropriate for a change.’ – hp / de tijd ‘The stories are raw, angry, intelligent, and they allow us to empathize with people who at one and the same time ask for help and slap away every outstretched hand. [...] This prose hurts, it moves, and most importantly: it makes a lasting impression.’ – author Thomas Heerma van Voss, de correspondent
jan arends (1925-1974) wrote a small body of work that consists of both prose and poetry. Both in his prose and his poems he combines a suffocating, desolate atmosphere with unique wit. On the day that his collection Lunchpauze gedichten (Lunchtime Poems) appeared, he committed suicide by jumping out of the window of his room in Amsterdam. Arends suffered from bouts of severe depression for much of his life and with Keefman (1972) he wrote one of his overwhelming testimonies about it. When he was not in mental institutions Arends was by turns an author, a copywriter for advertising bureaus and a house servant to older women. 22
Jan Arends Keefman The mental institution as model for society as a whole. Keefman is the highlight of a small, but high-quality oeuvre, which has received praise from critics and readers alike, and which has lost none of its power of expression.
Keefman is Jan Arends’s classic short story collection in which the central characters move on the fringes of society: the psychiatric patient, the recluse, the schlemiel. About the heartrending title story in which a resident of a mental institution comes out with a withering tirade against his psychiatrist, Rudy Kousbroek wrote: ‘For an entire oeuvre of the quality of Keefman I wouldn’t find a Nobel Prize excessive.’
World rights: De Bezige Bij/Lebowski • Short stories, 142 pages • 2014 Featured title in 10 Books from Holland (Dutch Foundation for Literature) 23
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new literary non-fiction
‘Thinking Helps is refreshing. After reading Drost’s book I felt a lot better than before.’– trouw On The Romantic Fallacy: ‘An illuminating, erudite yet hopeful book. With his clear-sighted view, Jan Drost does love a great service.’ **** – de telegraaf ‘In a crystal-clear, measured style, Drost builds an argument for taking control of our thoughts on love, in order to arrive at a better, more realistic outcome.’ – nrc handelsblad
jan drost (1975) is a writer and philosopher. He specializes in the philosophy of culture, and the philosophy of love in particular. He teaches at The School of Life Amsterdam and writes for nrc.next, NRC Handelsblad, de Volkskrant and Filosofie Magazine. He is the author of Het romantische misverstand (The Romantic Fallacy), now in its fourth printing.
Jan Drost Thinking Helps ‘The Dutch Alain de Botton est arrivé.’ – psychologie magazine Philosophy fuzzy? No, it’s not thin king about your life that’s fuzzy. Anyone who never asks him self the big questions lives randomly and can become hopelessly lost in emptiness and impotence. To be able to live a signi ficant and prosperous life we need to know what it is that gives our existence meaning and what can make us happy – or rather more modestly, less unhappy. Jan Drost investigates how to go about it, with the aid of thinkers including Aristotle, Epicurus, Seneca, Spinoza and Sartre. Their thoughts and insights can help, not just with the big things like love, contentment, anxiety, life, death, sadness and grief but with smaller matters too, such as the question of why it always starts to rain as soon as you step out of your door. We can follow these philosophers in seeking our own path, our own inner freedom and, with a bit of luck, happiness. World rights: De Bezige Bij • English sample available Non-fiction, Philosophy, 367 pages • 2015 25
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‘Kieft has written a page-turner that attests to vision, expertise and daring.’
Ewoud Kieft War Enthusiasm
**** – nrc handelsblad
Europe 1900-1918
‘I read it at one sitting. Kieft has succeeded in discussing the subject in a surprising and compelling way.’
‘Ewoud Kieft is today’s most important young Dutch historian.’ – historisch nieuwsblad
– de groene amsterdammer
ewoud kieft (1977) is a writer, historian and musician. Newspapers NRC and Trouw voted his debut Plagiaat (Plagiarism) one of the best books of 2006. His second book Oorlogsmythen (Myths of War) was longlisted for the AKO Literature Prize in 2012. In 2011 he obtained his PhD with a thesis about the war enthusiasm of 1914.
‘That’s what I like about this terrific war, the fact that it appears utterly “pointless”’, wrote Hermann Hesse on 26 December 1914, five months after the start of wwi. And he was not alone: thousands of Europe’s most prominent artists, writers and scholars were euphoric when war broke out. Their words have been frequently quoted, but this is the first book that seeks to get to the deepest roots of the war enthusiasm of 1914. In War Enthusiasm Ewoud Kieft delves into the lives of ten of the most intriguing war enthusiasts of the early twentieth century, among them Hesse, Sigmund Freud, Vladimir Mayakovsky and H.G. Wells, to solve the mystery: how could so many progressive, socially engaged men and women turn into militant radicals extolling the virtues of war? War Enthusiasm exposes themes in Europe’s modern culture which have long been ignored, since those who understand the war enthusiasm of 1914 will also understand the birth and appeal of fascism and National Socialism. But above all the book illustrates the ongoing, alarming attraction of war. World rights: De Bezige Bij • English sample available Non-fiction, history, 544 pages • 2014 27
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new literary non-fiction
Schnitzler subjects the digital age to an analysis which is perceptive and critical in equal measure
Hans Schnitzler The Digital Proletariat
‘This is a disquieting book about the fate of mankind in a world in which digital technology and “the net” are changing our lives profoundly. Schnitzler has succeeded in putting into words the possible shadow sides to them in a well-founded, intelligent, compelling and eloquent manner.’ – Ad Verbrugge, Professor of philosophy, vu university amsterdam
‘There is an enormous destruction of attention going on, a battle to hijack our attention in all sorts of ways – our consciousness, our will, our critical faculties, our passions and desires – to channel them and steer them in the direction of yet more swipes and likes. That is something we really need to be watchful about: to what extent do we still have control of our attention and our powers of contemplation?’
hans schnitzler (1968) is a philosopher, writer and former columnist for de Volkskrant. His essays and opinion pieces have appeared in publications including NRC Handelsblad, nrc.next, Trouw, De Standaard, De Morgen and Hard Gras. The influence of digitalization on our everyday environment is a central subject in his work.
The digital revolution is producing a contemporary proletariat. Factory workers have been replaced by information processors, great industrialists by owners of data, machines by megaservers. The industrialization of work has given way to the industrialization of the mind, physical exhaustion to mental ex haustion, environmental pollution to mental pollution. The Digital Proletariat sketches the history of the creation of a modern class. The digital proletarian is a person whose entire consciousness – attention, emotions and friendships, ideas and fantasies – have been reduced to merchandise. Schnitzler helps us to see that humans are in danger of losing both their capacity to act and their knowledge of life. Total proletarianization is the result. The author’s biting criticism of digital culture prompts us to think again. World rights: De Bezige Bij • English sample available Non-fiction, philosophy, 175 pages • 2015 29
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‘Draulans tells it grippingly and – de standaard
new literary non-fiction
smoothly.’
‘A rich book’ – het belang van limburg On Draulans’s documentary The Power of the Minuscule: ‘Ask the average Fleming what the advantages of microbes are and at best he’ll turn up his nose. At worst he’ll run away screaming. Put the same question to biologist Dirk Draulans and he’ll brim with enthusiasm.’ – knack dirk draulans (1956) is a biologist, journalist and writer. He holds a PhD in science and has worked at Oxford University, where he specialized in behavioural sciences. Since 1987 he has been an editor at Belgian magazine Knack. He described his experiences as a war correspondent and in Africa in a number of books, each of which caused a stir. His 2012 title Samen voor ons eigen (Together for Our Own) was reprinted twice that same year. On the subjects covered in The Power of the Minuscule, Draulans made a documentary of the same name, which was broadcast on Flemish and Dutch television.
Dirk Draulans The Power of the Miniscule A guided tour through the invisible but vital world of moulds, yeasts and bacteria Microbes, or moulds, yeasts and bacteria are everywhere. If we could look around us with the eye of a microscope we would see them in immense quantities. Nature is largely composed of the myriad micro-organisms that make all life on earth possible. None of us could exist without microbes, so we ought to view human beings not as a species but as a conglomeration of species, a walking bio tope. What do we really know about that minuscule world of which we are unconsciously part? New scientific techniques have revealed a whole extra dimension to our society. They show us surprisingly complex interactions, including biological warfare but also farreaching forms of teamwork. It is becoming clearer than ever that nature is all about intensive collaboration. The Power of the Minuscule is popular science at its best. Dirk Draulans is a passionate storyteller who shows us the tiny details that go to make up the big stories. This book gives us access to an invisible world that is right before our eyes. World rights: De Bezige Bij • Non-fiction, biology, 347 pages • 2014 31
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new literary non-fiction
‘A smart and insightful narrative in which the memories and stories of ordinary citizens are brought together with larger histories… They fully live in this book, in this swirling and melancholic exploration that is nevertheless full of hope, in this wounded and traumatized part of Europe that is nevertheless full of vitality.’ **** – nrc handelsblad ‘It’s not just a beautifully written travel story but a political history of the former Yugoslavia and a philosophical meditation on topics including identity and history. Vermeersch attempts to understand the role of identity in violent conflict, reminding us why we need to remember the horrors.’ – de correspondent
peter vermeersch (1972) is a professor of social science and politics, and a writer of literary non-fiction. Over the years he has studied, lived and conducted research in various places in Central Europe and the Balkans. Today he is affiliated with the University of Leuven in Belgium. Vermeersch’ writing and research revolves mostly around Central and Eastern Europe and covers topics such as minority politics, the Roma, nationalism, everyday citizenship, and democratization.
Peter Vermeersch Ex. About a Country Gone Missing A compelling literary narrative about the post-war experience in former Yugoslavia
In Ex. About a Country Gone Mis sing, a book of history and literary reportage, Peter Vermeersch sketches portraits of everyday life in the former Yugoslavia. The story moves from a murder mystery in the streets of Brussels to a surprising variety of post-Yugoslav landscapes that impel visitors to remember certain parts of history and forget others. Vermeersch travels to Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo, and everywhere he listens to stories about love, war, coffee, medication and tattoos. With an Orthodox priest he embarks on a pilgrimage to a monastery at the closed-off Greek peninsula of Athos.
World rights: De Bezige Bij • English sample available Non-fiction, reportage, 333 pages • 2014 33
thomas rap
new literary non-fiction
After a near-perfect World Cup in Brazil, Louis van Gaal faced an uncertain adventure at Manchester United. The bronze medal earned him a lot of respect, but offered no guarantee of success. With Robin van Persie and Daley Blind by his side, he tried to put his stamp on the faltering club. From the rough city in the North of England, sports journalist Geert Langendorff followed ‘Magic Louis’s’ every move. The result is a compelling account of a football season.
geert langendorff (1977) is a journalist who has worked for Trouw, Voetbal Interna tional, NRC Handelsblad and De Persdienst. Last summer he moved to Manchester. From northern England he followed the activities of Louis van Gaal in his first season in the Premier League.
Geert Langendorff Different Cook Manchester United and Louis van Gaal – reflections on a turbulent year Tanned and with an aura of invincibility, Louis van Gaal arrived at Manchester United, the greatest club in the world, after the World Cup in Brazil. His task was simple: following a disastrous year he was to add a positive chapter to the rich history of the Busby Babes and the teams of Sir Alex Ferguson. The way to the top, which Van Gaal usually finds with ease, turned out to be far more tortuous in England than at his earlier posts, in Amsterdam, Barcelona and Munich for example. Unsuitable players, a cartload of injuries, British football culture and the language all forced him to tie himself in knots. The Premier League, he discovered, was a different kettle of fish. Sports journalist Geert Langendorff moved to Manchester and closely followed the Dutchman and his team, Robin van Persie and Daley Blind in particular. He describes the life of the coach, his players and the fans from the perspective of a city in which almost everything revolves around one thing: football.
World rights: Thomas Rap • Non-fiction, sports, 288 pages Forthcoming: September 2015 35
oog & blik
new graphic novel
‘…if Harry [Mulisch] had been able to draw, he would have done it like this!’ – Kitty Saal (Harry Mulisch’s widow)
Milan Hulsing and Harry Mulisch The Assault
On Mulisch’s The Assault:
A graphic adaptation of one of Dutch literature’s timeless modern classics
‘A dark fable about design and accident, strength and weakness, and the ways in which guilt and innocence can overlap and intermingle.’ – the new york times
Since 1982, when The Assault by Harry Mulisch was first published, 750,000 copies have been sold in the Netherlands and Flemish-speaking Belgium alone. Internationally the book was highly praised and met with commercial success in many countries. In 1986 the film adaption of the book was awarded the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film - a first in Dutch cinematic history. In May 2015 a colourful and idiosyncratic graphic novel will be published, based on this modern classic. Awardwinning artist Milan Hulsing ma nages to combine Harry Mulisch’s lucid narrative with dark but often colourful drawings that perfectly reflect the atmosphere of this richly rewarding book.
milan hulsing (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, Stad van klei (City of Clay), was extremely well received by reviewers and translation rights have been sold to several countries.
harry mulisch (1927-2010) wrote novels, stories and essays that won him countless literary prizes and honours. Part of the literary universe he left has been published in more than thirty-six languages.
The Assault tells the exciting and tra gic 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.
World rights: Oog & Blik • Graphic novel, full-colour, 160 pages Forthcoming: May 2015 37
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‘Characters who will steal your heart. […] There are books that radiate self-confidence from the very first page, permeated with concentration, control and a kind of maturity. If we, for the moment, define good writing as getting readers where you want them, Sacrifice can only be called exemplary.’ **** – nrc handelsblad ‘A tale about benign but destructive love in a country of weakened souls. Van Beijnum portrays in poignant and historically accurate scenes a country finding it hard to bear a lost war. ***** – algemeen dagblad ‘The alternating storylines of Brink, Michiko and Hideiki are
well balanced, like a perfectly composed piece of music.’ **** – de telegraaf
kees van beijnum (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 equivalent of the Academy Awards. De ordening (The Arrangement), published in 1998, was 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 His love for a Japanese woman confronts a young judge with an impossible dilemma: should he remain true to his principles or break the law to save a life? 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 an 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 sample available Rights sold: Bertelsmann (Germany) • Novel, 512 pages • 2014 41
oog & blik
‘An overwhelming graphic novel [...] Majestic and compelling, with beautiful drawings and a cast-iron story. More of this, Aimée!’ ***** – veronica magazine ‘Beautifully drawn, realistic without being hyper realistic. Enchanting, with space for the imagination. Exactly what a good story should do. [...] Buy and read this splendid book.’ – het parool ‘With its balanced rhythm of two alternating storylines, a drawing style both sketchy and precise, attention to perspective and divergent framing, as well as a surprising plot, this is a thoroughly mature debut.’ – nrc handelsblad
successful titles
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. Me mories from childhood trouble him more and more, and Simon’s life is gradually transformed into a turbulent dream. On ly Regina, a young girl he comes upon by chance, can give him the peace and love he longs for.
aimée de jongh (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 • Sample translations available • Rights sold: Dargaud (Belgium: French) • Graphic novel, B&W, 160 pages • 2014 Featured title in 10 Books from Holland (Dutch Foundation for Literature) 43
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‘In the wonderful Under the Knife, Van de Laar describes the most famous operations and patients in the history of surgery. Without shunning medical terminology he delivers a readable narrative – spiked with a myriad of interesting details – of the diseases and injuries of famous people such as Bob Marley, Empress Sissi, Lenin, Queen Victoria, Einstein and President Kennedy.’ – nrc handelsblad ‘Van de Laar, a surgeon himself, has studied the surgical history of celebrated figures such as Albert Einstein and Louis xiv. He alternates his anecdotes with reflective questions: “What kind of people are surgeons actually? Where do they find the audacity to cut into another person’s body, even if under narcosis? Are surgeons crazy, brilliant or unscrupulous? Are they heroes or braggarts?” A well-written and informative work.’ – de volkskrant
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 entire history of surgery told in twenty-eight remarkable operations
‘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 (fistula in the anus), Pope John Paul II (colostomy), John F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald (gun shot 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 available Rights sold: Pattloch (Germany), Reaktion Books (England) Non-fiction, popular medicine, 414 pages • 2014 45
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While the Gods Were Sleeping has been longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2015 On While the Gods were Sleeping ‘An astonishing novel. Mortier takes us with him into everyday life during the First World War, and in a way so profound and impressive that it’s as if the author experienced those times himself.’ – frankfurter allgemeine zeitung On The Reflections: ‘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 mark in 1999 with his debut novel Marcel, which was awarded several prizes and nominated for the most important literary awards. His novel Godenslaap (While the Gods Were Sleeping) won him the renowned AKO Literature Prize, and is currently on the longlist for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2015. Gestameld liedboek (Stammered Songbook), received unanimous praise, and won the 2013 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger in the essay category. Five of his major works have been published in English by Pushkin Press.
Erwin Mortier The Reflections ‘If Marcel Proust has a descendant somewhere in Flanders, he must have been born in Ghent.’ – knack
Edgard Demont, born from the mud of World War I, returns physically and emotionally woun ded 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. His reflections paint the self-portrait of a man eager to crawl away from the past into love and desire, whose praises he sings and of whose fragility he is well aware.
World rights: De Bezige Bij • English sample and French manuscript available Rights sold: Fayard (France) • Novel, 304 pages • 2014 47
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Shortlisted for the Golden Owl Prize 2015 ‘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 books including In Europe, The Bridge and In America ‘With Organ Man Mark Schaevers has written not just a moving biography of the painter Felix Nussbaum but a masterly portrait of an insane era.’ – de tijd ‘You need to know about Nussbaum’s life to be able to understand his work to the full. Now that we have Organ Man, we can. A big, big bravo!’ – vrij nederland
mark schaevers (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 De wolken. Uit de geheime laden van Hugo Claus (The Clouds. From the secret drawers of Hugo Claus), based on the writer’s archive. He wrote about exile in an earlier book, Oostende, de zomer van 1936 (Ostend, the Summer of 1936).
Mark Schaevers Organ Man Felix Nussbaum. A Painter’s Life The miraculous rebirth of an artist destroyed by Hitler Organ Man tells of the miraculous rebirth of an artist destroyed by Hitler: Felix Nussbaum. If his life in exile from 1933 onwards was difficult, at the end of the war it was burned to the ground. Like his wife Felka Platek, Nussbaum did not return from the last transport to the East from the Dossin Barracks in Mechelen. Nothing was left of his paintings or the great fame he enjoyed in Berlin between the wars. And yet half a century later his native city of Osnabrück has built a museum for him and today he is regarded as one of the most important Jewish painters of the twentieth century. How this wandering organ man managed to find an echo after all is an extraordinary and exciting element of the history of the Low Countries that has waited until now to be told.
World rights: De Bezige Bij • Rights sold: Galiani Verlag (Germany) Illustrated non-fiction, biography, 320 pages • 2014 49
cargo
successful titles
‘A thriller as a thriller should be. Like the work of Scandinavian colleagues, Different is raw and dark, at times even gruesome.’ – **** dagblad van het noorden
A
‘Terpstra has structured her story extremely well. gripping thriller inspired by real-life events.’ – **** crimezone
‘It is impressive to see how Terpstra builds both plot and tension. An excellent thriller that keeps you hooked until the denouement.’ – de gooi- en eemlander ‘Different is an original story with a well-developed plot and an unsettling atmosphere that stays with you.’ – ***** vrouwenthrillers.nl ‘Terpstra subverts the picture of the lost son very, very gradually. Different is a cleverly structured and credible story in which the oppressive tension builds slowly but surely.’ – thrillerweb.nl anita terpstra (1974) graduated in journalism and art history. Her successful debut thriller Nachtvlucht (Night Flight) was nominated for the Shadow Prize and the Crimezone Thriller Award.
Anita Terpstra Different ‘He had to be here somewhere. It is not as if these woods were huge. They were not in bloody Canada or wherever they had forests the size of Dutch provinces. A child couldn’t disappear without trace. Her 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 disappea red 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 • Rights sold: Blanvalet (Germany), Denoël (France) Thriller, 302 pages • 2014 • Featured thriller in 10 Books from Holland (Dutch Foundation for Literature) 51
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Shortlisted for the Libris Literature Prize 2015 ‘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. De bewaker (The Guard) won the European Union Prize for Literature and made the longlist of both the Golden Owl and AKO Literature prizes. Post-mortem won him the AKO Literature Prize. His work has been translated into numerous languages.
Peter Terrin Monte Carlo An electrifying novel about heroism, nostalgia and the desire to be seen Monaco, May 1968. Immediately prior to the start of the Formula 1 Grand Prix, as 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 of injuries 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 available Rights sold: Iperborea (Italy), MacLehose Press (World English), Rayo Verde (Spanish and Catalan), Berlin Verlag (Germany), Actes Sud (France), Shorai-Sha (Japan) • Novel, 176 pages • 2014 53
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‘Wieringa’s masterful depiction of a faltering ***** – de volkskrant
marriage’
‘A magician at work.’ ***** – de morgen On These Are The Names: ‘It is superb (…) Were it eligible, could really shake up the Man Booker (…) Film-makers should pounce (…) Echoes of the great JM Coetzee’s elegant irony (…) This is a bravura performance. Far closer to Joseph Conrad than one might expect.’ – irish times ‘Highly intelligent. Tommy Wieringa will make you think and keep you reading eagerly to the final page.’ – times literary supplement
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 microbio logist 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 to have sex purely because she wants a child that Ruth finally falls pregnant. After the birth of his 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 and German translation available Rights sold: Hanser (Germany), Actes Sud (France), Iperborea (Italy), Scribe (UK/ANZ), Libri (Hungary), Edhasa (Argentina), Tiderne Skifter (Denmark), People´s Press (China) • Novel, 96 pages • 2014 55
autumn preview
autumn preview
Hagar Peeters Malva
Leon de Winter Geronimo
Commanding novel about world-famous poet Pablo Neruda’s daughter
A group of Navy Seals misleads the world about the fate of Osama bin Laden
Pablo Neruda was once married to a Dutch woman. They had a disabled daughter, Malva, who died at the age of eight. In a debut novel both lyrical and narrative, Hagar Peeters has this young girl, after her death, pick up the pen that her father allowed to slip from his hand when he died.
Jabbar is a poor Pakistani boy who wants to buy prostheses for the girl he is secretly in love with: a disabled young beggar girl with eyes that have glimpsed both heaven and hell. To raise money he tries to sell the old stool he took from the house of the dead Osama bin Laden – ignorant of the fact that by doing so he crucially alters the course of history.
Malva asked Hagar Peeters, who was not acknowledged by her father until she was eleven, to act as a ghost writer. Hagar’s father was in Chilli as a journalist when, at Neruda’s funeral, the first demonstration again General Pinochet’s regime took place. And so the lives of both fathers crossed. Malva is the story of a child who was not supposed to exist.
Leon de Winter takes the reader on a whirlwind journey, in a story set across various continents, with surprising twists and turns in every chapter. And all this time he juggles the question whether the official version of Osama bin Laden’s death is the correct one. A high-wire act of the imagination.
World rights: De Bezige Bij • Novel • 320 ... pages • Forthcoming: September 2015
English language rights: De Bezige Bij • Novel • 400 pages • Forthcoming: May 2015
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de bezige bij at the london book fair 2015 Jacques Schalken Editor non-fiction j.schalken@debezigebij.nl
Henk Pröpper Director/Publisher Francien Schuursma Director Author Management and Communication Haye Koningsveld Editor-in-chief non-fiction h.koningsveld@debezigebij.nl
Marije de Bie Editor translated fiction m.de.bie@debezigebij.nl Marjolein Schurink Editor-in-chief Cargo m.schurink@debezigebij.nl
Peter van der Zwaag Editor-in-chief translated fiction p.van.der.zwaag@debezigebij.nl Arend Hosman Editor-in-chief Thomas Rap a.hosman@thomasrap.nl Melissa van der Wagt Publisher Cargo (Slaughterhouse; Tomas Ross Crime) m.van.der.wagt@debezigebij.nl
Chris Kooi Editor Cargo c.kooi@debezigebij.nl Uta Matten Foreign rights manager u.matten@debezigebij.nl Marijke Nagtegaal Foreign rights manager m.nagtegaal@debezigebij.nl
Assigned Bezige Bij tables in the International Rights Center at the Fair: 29-O and 29-P
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