Frankfurt Foreign Rights Guide De Bezige Bij - Final Version by De Bezige Bij

Foreign Rights Guide Frankfurt Book Fair 2018 De Bezige Bij The Busy Bee Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find us in Hall 5.0 d87 (part of the collective Dutch stand)

DE BEZIGE BIJ, THOMAS RAP & CARGO

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FOREIGN RIGHTS GUIDE FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR 2018

Johan de Boose Peter Terrin Jeroen Theunissen Daniël Samkalden

NEW LITERARY FICTION Cursed Wood ..........................................................................2 Patricia ....................................................................................4 Your Skin ...............................................................................6 Nova .......................................................................................8

Gerard Reve

MODERN CLASSICS Childhood .............................................................................10

David Van Reybrouck Chris de Stoop Stefan Buijsman Paul Verhaeghe Paul Scheffer Lammert Kamphuis Jan Cremer Annet Mooij Alicja Gescinska

LITERARY NON-FICTION Odes ......................................................................................12 When the Water Breaks .......................................................14 Pluses and Minuses ..............................................................16 Intimacy................................................................................18 The Shape of Freedom .........................................................20 Philosophy for an Inimitable Life ........................................22 Jayne .....................................................................................24 The Age of Gisele ................................................................26 At Home in Music ................................................................28

Anita Terpstra

COMMERCIAL FICTION Spark.....................................................................................30

Stefan Hertmans Tommy Wieringa Onno Blom Mathijs Deen Ingrid Hoogendijk Kasper van Beek Judith Vanistendael Daan Heerma van Voss Hugo Claus

SUCCESSFUL TITLES The Convert ..........................................................................32 The Blessed Rita...................................................................33 The Young Rembrandt: A Biography ..................................34 Down Old Roads ..................................................................35 In Any Case, We’re Still Doing Fine ..................................36 Recollection .........................................................................37 Mikel ....................................................................................38 Call it Love ...........................................................................39 The Rumours ........................................................................40

Peter Buwalda

COMING SOON Otmar’s Sons ........................................................................41

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Excerpt: ‘I often feel captive, inside my bark, in the ground. I cannot move from my spot, so I stretch my branches to the skies, I am not large, but I stretch, so far, until all my twigs hurt, in the hope that it will bring some consolation. I have even seen humans do it: stretching to the sky, spreading non-existent wings. Strange, because, after all, they can move.’

‘A great Russian writer lurks in the soul of Johan de Boose. The plot of Cursed Wood is as hilarious as it is brilliant.’ – Stefan Hertmans, author of War and Turpentine and The Convert

(b. 1962) writes novels, non-fiction, poems and stage plays. He is the author of The Puppeteer and the SheDevil, a non-fiction book about the war in Yugoslavia, Blood Witnesses, a novel about the Second World War, and Belgian Rules/Belgium Rules, the script for a theatrical creation by Jan Fabre. Johan de Boose’s work has won him the Halewijn Prize, the Henriette Roland Holst Prize and the Cutting Edge Award. As well as writing, he performs his own scripts. JOHAN DE BOOSE

NEW LITERARY FICTION

Johan de Boose

Cursed Wood 00

The miraculous journey of an extraordinary piece of wood across two thousand years of history A piece of wood from a tree in Palestine was used to crucify the prophet Yeshua. The wood turns out to have magical powers: it can talk and it arouses exceptional desire in anyone who touches it. When a theatre director takes it to support his stage set, a spectacular journey begins. The piece of wood finds its way to the Roman emperor, Orthodox monks, the Russian tsar, Islamic scholars, inventors, the pope, fascists and communists, painters, scientists and terrorists. Along the way it encounters famous toenails, shrouds and foreskins. The journey lasts more than two thousand years. With the wood as a witness, Johan de Boose takes the reader on a journey past the most dramatic events of European history. The fact that the wood has certain reservations about everything adds an appealing, ironic touch.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Rights sold: btb/Luchterhand (Germany) – Novel – 214 pages – September 2018 – English sample translation available 3

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‘Just like Monte Carlo, Patricia has the

international

allure that should bring it far outside our borders. (…) Terrin is a master of the miniature scenes: the small

it seems like you’re not reading them, but experiencing them. Terrin observes with a jealousyinducing eye for detail and writes it down moments, captured so precisely that

flawlessly, in his unique, clean style.’ – Humo **** Press on previous work: ‘In Monte Carlo Peter Terrin shows his great

talent and

craftsmanship.’ - de Standaard ***** ‘Brave and challenging. Yucca penetrates right into the unconscious.’ de Volkskrant **** (b. 1968) won the prestigious AKO Literature Prize in 2012, with Post Mortem. His novels The Guard (2009) and Monte Carlo (2014) were both on the shortlist for the Libris Literature Prize. In 2016 came Yucca, nominated for the Gouden Strop and shortlisted for the ECI Literature Prize. Books by Peter Terrin have been translated into more than fifteen languages, including English, French, Italian, Turkish, Hebrew and Japanese. PETER TERRIN

NEW LITERARY FICTION

Peter Terrin

Patricia ‘I pulled the door of the house shut. I did it precisely as I always do, with a sharp final tug. I walked calmly down the path, unlocking my car on the way. If the son of the neighbours across the road was in his room, he wouldn’t notice a thing. Everything sounded the way it always sounded.’ Astrid is a successful event manager, aged thirty-nine. At the exact moment when her career and motherhood become too much, she drops her iPhone into her young son’s bathwater. For the outside world, which continually makes demands on her, she is suddenly impossible to reach. Then she does the unthinkable. She walks out of the house, starts her car, and drives away from her desirable neighbourhood. On the motorway she comes to her senses and is panic-stricken. She hurries back, fearful something will happen to her five-year-old son Louis. But when she unexpectedly finds her husband David’s car parked outside the house, she doesn’t dare show her face. From then on she is in search of a way back into her own life. Peter Terrin succeeds in keeping the reader in suspense from beginning to end as he tells the story of Patricia, a woman in crisis who is forced to question everything she thought she knew about herself. World rights: De Bezige Bij – Novel – Selected option publishers: MacLehose Press (UK), Liebeskind (Germany), Actes Sud (France), Rayo Verde (Spain) – 208 pages – October 2018 – Actively promoted by Flanders Literature – English sample translation available 5

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‘The conversations between Ama and Griff would

not be

out of place in Roland Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse. – NRC Handelsblad**** ‘The role played by Brussels, the city Theunissen succeeds in bringing to life, is beautiful.’ – Nederlands Dagblad ‘Sometimes there are novels I’d

like to have written

myself.’ – Kees ’t Hart, author, De Groene Amsterdammer ‘Carefully considered prose by a writer whose novels are evolving to ever Press

greater heights.’ – Cutting Edge

On Innocence (2014): ‘With each book his oeuvre becomes more relevant, more

convincing and more irresistible.’ – De Standaard **** THEUNISSEN (b. 1977) has published three collections of poetry and several works of prose. His 2013 picaresque family novel The Roundabout Ways was critically acclaimed and was shortlisted for the prestigious Libris Literature Prize. It was followed in 2014 by Innocence. In 2016 he won the Herman de Coninck Readers’ Prize for Here’s Where You Live. JEROEN

NEW LITERARY FICTION

Jeroen Theunissen

Your Skin A twenty-first century love story, set in the culturally diverse and bustling urban heart of Europe

Griff is a eurocrat, Ama is a woman without a residence permit. He lobbies for big companies, she takes on all kinds of underpaid jobs. He is a Westerner, she an African; he an ‘expat’, she a ‘migrant’. When Griff and Ama begin a relationship, they have to set aside many doubts and prejudices. Does love conquer all? Or are they just using each other, until they have enough? And what about the city where they live? Brussels is a metropolis in spite of itself, full of fine art and fine particulates, friendly one day, grim the next, with sometimes a little sunshine but mostly thick cloud. In a sensual, compelling style, this novel looks at what love and urban life mean in the twenty-first century. Have we all become citizens of the world? Or are we simply a bit lost?

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Novel – 254 pages – June 2018 – English sample translation available 7

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Excerpt: ‘I know the bars that aren’t too quiet but are not packed either. Where the men aren’t senile but neither are they cocky. The door swings open, I unbutton my coat, one drink is enough. The men are always willing. Always. You don’t have to complicate things. You don’t need any special chat-up lines. Nor a military campaign. They all just come along like pet ducks. Perhaps it’s sad. But mainly it’s comforting. I don’t know what I’d do without their perpetual zeal. I like my solitary passage through the evening. When the rhythm speeds up and time seems to stretch out. The sluggish concentration. But on evenings like these I cannot be alone. Everything is made of cardboard. My belongings bare their teeth at me like vicious dogs. Eyes shut so I don’t scream. And then open again, breathe! Keep moving, don’t think too much. Each second can reveal new depths.’ DANIËL

SAMKALDEN

(b. 1979) is a

songwriter, dramatist and theatre director. He has reported on his travels all over the world for the national newspapers NRC Handelsblad and de Volkskrant. Nova is his long-awaited debut novel.

NEW LITERARY FICTION

Daniël Samkalden

Nova ‘And then he saw her walking towards him in the distance, on the far side of the street as darkness fell, out of nowhere. She walked through the mist of the cold in the grey shades of twilight, as if a rose bush were to rise up out of the desert soil. Unreal.’ After a brilliant insight, astronomer Julie travels to a peaceful mountain landscape in America for the ultimate test of her theory. Television biologist Thomas de Poes travels after her in an attempt to set things right after their first embarrassing encounter. He carries with him his life story, written down by the tormented author Maarten Schrepel, who gave up everything for his writing career, even the relationship with his estranged son. The three of them cause tempestuous disruption to each other’s lives. As their paths cross in some of the most remote places on earth, their utterly different ways of thinking become apparent. The question for each of them is: can they escape their fate or must they submit to it?

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Novel – 288 pages – September 2018 – English sample translation available 9

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Praise for The Evenings: “An enfant terrible of

Dutch Genius” – Tim Parks, The Guardian

“A masterwork of comic pathos… one of the finest

studies of youthful malaise ever written” - Irish Times “Every bit as much of a classic as On the Road and The Catcher in the Rye” - Herman Koch, author of The Dinner

“Diabolically funny… an existential

masterwork worthy to stand with Beckett or Camus”- The Economist (1923-2006) is considered one of the greatest post-war Dutch authors, and was also the first openly gay writer in the country’s history. A complicated and controversial character, Reve is also hugely popular and critically acclaimed. The first English translation of his masterpiece The Evenings shipped more than 20,000 copies in the UK and was a three-time book of the year in 2016. GERARD REVE

MODERN CLASSIC

Gerard Reve

Childhood These two novellas, which view the world through the eyes of a child and are widely recognized as highlights of Reve’s impressive oeuvre, are now to be published in English for the first time In Werther Nieland, eleven-year-old Elmer inhabits a childhood of superstition, private lore and secret societies that only certain friends can join (and of which he is always president). When a new boy – pale, spindly Werther – arrives in the neighbourhood, a subtle game of fascination and persecution begins. The Fall of the Boslowitz Family is set in WWII Amsterdam. A young boy watches as Germans occupy the city. At first his parents’ friends, the Boslowits family, think they have little to fear. Then, slowly, terribly, their fate is sealed. In these haunting novellas from the acclaimed author of The Evenings, the world of childhood, in all its magic and strangeness, darkness and cruelty, is evoked with piercing wit and dreamlike intensity. Here, the things seen through a child’s eyes are far from innocent. World rights: De Bezige Bij – Novellas – Rights sold: Pushkin Press (UK) – selected option publishers: Iperborea (Italy), Turbine Forlaget (Denmark), Am Oved Publishers (Israel) – 142 pages – first print edition 1949-50 – full English translation available 11

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Ode to the ex ‘And suddenly, there we were again. Last Monday, a Brussels cafe. The day was done and we sat beside each other, just like we used to. Watching people, squeezing each other’s thigh, thinking about that sentence from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Aimer, ce n’est pas de regarder l’un l’autre, c’est regarder ensemble dans la même direction.” Yes, we often looked in the same direction. For six years. Committed to so much, astonished at even more, and sometimes simply content with the apple-carrot-ginger juice we made for each other on Sunday mornings. And now, here we were again. After a three-month silence. She ordered port. Funny, she never used to do that. Everything had changed, yet still it seemed like old times. Who are these people we once loved so much? The word “ex” doesn’t do justice to the intense, multilayered relations we’re left with from our former loves. The relationships with former lovers are perhaps the most enduring in our lives. The love went, the past remains, something along those lines.’ (b. 1971) writes non-fiction, poetry and works for theatre. Congo. A History became an international bestseller. His essay Against Elections appeared in twenty languages and was praised by Kofi Annan. He is the author of the theatre monologue Para. Along with Mohamed El Bachiri he wrote A Jihad of Love and with Thomas d’Ansembourg the essay Peace can be Learned. Van Reybrouck’s Book Week essay Zink won him the Prix du livre Européen. He is currently writing a comprehensive history about Indonesia. DAVID VAN REYBROUCK

NEW LITERARY NON-FICTION ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

David Van Reybrouck

Odes The author of Against Elections and Congo shows his mastery of the ode with stimulating prose about an expansive range of topics

No writer commands the art of the ode like David Van Reybrouck. Since early 2015 he has regularly sung the praises of something, someone or someplace on the website of in-depth news website The Correspondent. Be it the ex, the spring, Leonard Cohen, the cleaning lady, failure, Kofi Annan, or, of course, love, in his subtle and poignant odes he drops his guard completely. Van Reybrouck’s pieces have been shared many times over and bring thousands of readers moments of tranquillity, astonishment and beauty. In Odes they come together for the first time.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Odes – Many option publishers – 239 pages, illustrated – November 2018 – English sample translation available 13

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Chris de Stoop in Trouw: ‘Which story affected me the most? A difficult question. Hung, the boat’s owner, struggled with guilt because he left his heavily pregnant wife behind and thought he would never see her again. Then there’s the incredible story of mother Huong, who followed Hung’s boat with two babies in a reed basket. Or the little girl Tam, who joined them because she had broken a porcelain plate and was afraid of her strict father. These are the epic stories of our time; I listened and wrote them down.’ Excerpt: ‘He might be wrong, but he thinks twenty-six ships passed by. Some may not have seen them, or pretended not to. But others were barely a hundred metres away from the drifting fishing boat. Sometimes he could even see people walking up and down on board. They didn’t bat an eyelid.’ On This is My Farm:

impactful book that describes the loss of the farming life as a cultural battle that affects everyone.’ – Frankfurter ‘An

Allgemeine Zeitung (b. 1958) is the author of widely-praised books and the winner of journalistic and literary prizes. The bestseller This is My Farm (2015), about the loss of a farming landscape, was a Book of the Month for television programme ‘De Wereld Draait Door’ and won him the Confituur Independent Booksellers Prize. This is My Farm sold to Germany, France and China. CHRIS DE STOOP

NEW LITERARY NON-FICTION

Chris de Stoop

When the Water Breaks A deeply humane story of the fault line that migration represents, zooming in on one boat, one group, one family. This is the true story of a fisherman and his daughter, who fled their native country of Vietnam thirty years ago. Hung crossed the sea in his overpopulated little fishing boat and barely survived. He started a new life in a Belgian village. Years later, his daughter Quyen opens a successful restaurant, but questions her identity. It is also the story of the dozens of other travellers from that same boat, with whom Hung and his family bobbed about on the sea—a small community of interlinked lives, brought together by one decisive moment. Not everyone survived. Some felt lost afterwards. Others became doctors, engineers, bankers or entrepreneurs. A story of sacrifice, deceit, conflict, fear, love and homesickness, told in a relatable style by Chris de Stoop, who follows the family for years, having spoken to dozens of those who travelled with them. With so many parallels to the world of today, this books shines a humane light on the problematic issues surrounding the ships full of refugees refused entry by European countries today.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Literary non-fiction – 258 pages – September 2018 – option publisher: Christian Bourgois (France) – English sample translation available 15

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‘Stefan Buijsman is Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory, but with much better social skills, a man of immeasurable capacities and way above average intelligence.’ – Svenska Dagbladet

‘Stefan

is so smart that we are a bit lost for words.’

– Dutch Public Broadcasting Channel, NOS

(b. 1995) gained a master’s degree in philosophy in Leiden at the age of eighteen, after which he moved to Sweden to work on a PhD. Within eighteen months, instead of the usual four years, he gained his doctorate, making him one of the youngest ever PhDs. He is currently studying the philosophy of mathematics as a post-doctoral researcher. Along with Govrien Oldenburger he is the author of the children’s book The Kingdom of Sums (2018). STEFAN BUIJSMAN

NEW LITERARY NON-FICTION

Stefan Buijsman

Pluses and Minuses The use of math when you never calculate anything Thousands of years ago the inhabitants of Mesopotamia became the first to use numbers. Since then, mathematics has been unstoppable. It’s behind almost everything, from search engines to cruise control, from coffee-makers to timetables. But now that we hardly ever need to do arithmetic any longer, how relevant is mathematics to everyday life? Pluses and Minuses demonstrates which role mathematics plays in the human endeavour. It begins with the mathematical skills we all possess from birth and arrives at the many applications of mathematics today. It turns out that if we don’t understand the ideas behind those applications we find ourselves side-lined in situations where they don’t work as we want them to. Buijsman answers questions such as: What is life like without numbers? Does mathematics add anything? How important are integrals? Is the usefulness of mathematics mere chance? How can we get a grip on uncertainty? Can mathematics help us to treat cancer more effectively? Stefan Buijsman makes connections between philosophy, psychology and history, while explaining the wonderful world of mathematics for absolutely everyone.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – German offer – Popular science – 201 pages – October 2018 – English sample translation available – Selected by the Dutch Foundation for Literature as ‘Quality Non-fiction from Holland’ 2018 17

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Press on previous work: On What About Me: ‘Paul Verhaeghe brilliantly captures the long-term impact that living in a profit-obsessed society has had on our psychology. author

An excellent book.’

- Hanif Kureishi,

On Says Who: ‘Donald Trump’s, Wladimir Putin’s and Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s success one can explain by the longing of many

authority. In many countries voters call for a strong state and a tough reign. Why that is and why we need a new form of authority, Flemish people for

psychoanalytic Paul Verhaeghe demonstrates in his new book.’ - Deutschlandfunk Andruck PAUL VERHAEGHE (b.

1955) is a doctor of clinical psychology and a professor at the University of Ghent. He made his breakthrough to a general and international readership with Love in a Time of Loneliness (1998) and again reached a large global audience with The End of Psychotherapy (2009), What About Me (2012) and Says Who (2015).

NEW LITERARY NON-FICTION

Paul Verhaeghe

Intimacy Are you a body or do you have a body? A unique analysis of current thinking on intimacy by one of today’s sharpest minds

According to Paul Verhaeghe, intimacy is based first of all on a relationship with yourself and only then on relationships with others. Our relationship with our bodies lays the foundation not only for intimacy but for our mental and physical health. Nowadays, unfortunately, that relationship is characterized by embarrassment, a result of the conviction that we are never beautiful or healthy enough. In Intimacy Verhaeghe shows that our era is urgently in need of a new form of self-care, in which we coincide more closely with ourselves. He rejects the classic divide between body and mind, helping us to look at ourselves and the world in a new way.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Option publishers: Scribe (UK/ANZ), Kunstmann Verlag (Germany) – Psychology – 256 pages – November 2018 – English sample translation available 19

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‘Scheffer wants to accumulate the facts first, and talk after: A

clear and well-founded plea. He addresses the future of the European Union, that razed its internal borders but hasn’t sufficiently protected its outside borders yet.’ – Trouw Press on previous work: ‘Scheffer, who is prepared to take uncomfortable insights seriously and in doing so does not seem unduly worried about being liked,

deserves a prize for intellectual

courage.’ – NRC Handelsblad ‘The best book about migration

ever written in

the Low Countries.’ – De Morgen ‘Immigrant Nations has

immediately proved itself a

standard work.’ – Die Welt (b. 1954) is a columnist and a professor of European Studies. He has been a correspondent in Paris and Warsaw and in 2000 he famously published a controversial essay called ‘The Multicultural Drama’, which formed the basis of his bestselling book Immigrant Nations (2007). In late 2013 it was followed by Everything is Part of Reality. Herman Wolff (1893-1942), in which he told the story of his grandfather’s life. The origin of The Shape of Freedom lies in his much-discussed 2016 essay ‘The Freedom of the Border’. PAUL SCHEFFER

NEW LITERARY NON-FICTION

Paul Scheffer

The Shape of Freedom 00

Scheffer discusses a major issue of our times: how to deal with borders Ever since Paul Scheffer visited the Berlin Wall as an eighteen-year-old, he has been intrigued by borders, continually contemplating their value and significance. In response to the refugee crisis, the departure of the British from the European Union and the wall President Trump wants to build at the Mexican border, Scheffer has organized and further developed his ideas. For him there is no freedom without form; an open society cannot function without a border. It is the only way to guarantee citizens’ rights and solidarity. Drawing upon history, philosophy, geography and sociology, Scheffer analyses present-day problems including migration, protectionism and terrorism. In doing so he draws firm conclusions about the future of Europe. The Shape of Freedom is an urgent book of huge contemporary relevance for anyone interested in current affairs.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – option publisher: Hanser Verlag (Germany) – Current affairs – September 2018 – 224 pages – English sample translation available 21

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Part I: Philosophy for your relationship with the world I work, therefore I am / On work The calculator’s blind spots/ On numbers 20 kinds of jam /On freedom War or peace?/ On humans Mysticism and therapy/ On art The power of fire/ On smartphones Part II: Philosophy for your relationship with the other Speech is silver, silence is... / On friendship What is your fundamental mood? / On belief Just doubt it / On doubt The pope versus Kamasutra / On sex Long live Diogenes and Jules Deelder / On non-conformism Pretending / On ethics Part III: Philosophy for the connection with yourself Philosophy in times of misery / On consolation ...or not? / On restlessness Look again in your heart / On anger Desire management / On dissatisfaction For cowards and assholes / On the self Living in an ‘anti-age’ culture / On death

(b. 1983) is a philosopher and writer. He has taught at a number of schools and colleges and is in high demand as a speaker at congresses and festivals. He is both a teacher and head of faculty at The School of Life in Amsterdam. LAMMERT

KAMPHUIS

NEW LITERARY NON-FICTION

Lammert Kamphuis

Philosophy for an Inimitable Life A playful philosophy for a better relationship with yourself, your fellow humans and the world There is no rehearsal for life. You only get one go. Fortunately you can consult great thinkers for wise advice. Diogenes helps you to be your authentic self, Epicurus to avoid spending too much money, Kant to brake in time for a zebra crossing – but less well-known philosophers have something to offer as well. Lammert Kamphuis shows how thinkers both ancient and modern can assist you. From the moment you realize that life is not all roses, all kinds of questions flash through your mind: Where do I find myself? Who am I really? Who are these other people? Why are they all staring at me and what do they think of me? What is expected of me? Why am I here? And will someone tell me, please, when this is going to stop? Philosophy for an Inimitable Life offers comfort, enriches friendships, creates understanding for those who think differently and enables you to take more pleasure in your work. You’ll be amazed at how accessible this way of philosophizing is – and ready to try it for yourself.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Popular psychology, philosophy – June 2018 – 236 pages 23

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Excerpt: “Our ironing board adventure started coincidentally when Maria, who just ironed a pile of clothing, wanted to put it away. “Leave it!” ordered Jayne, looking at me questionably. Maria disappeared from the hotel room. “Have you ever done it on an ironing board?” Jayne asked seductively. I couldn’t confirm. I’d done it on horses, galloping and standing still, in elevators, cars, boats and airplanes, on cinema chairs, in beds, on couches and sofas, on bare floors and thick carpets, in phone cabins, on the street, in the train, in haystacks and stables, on wheelbarrows, behind buses and in bathrooms – that I’d done, but never on an ironing board.”

‘Cremer is once again in tremendous form. The descriptions of sex are totally inspiring and often terribly funny.’ – De Groene Amsterdammer ‘A fantastic book! Marvellous! oeuvre!’ – HP/ De Tijd

A highlight

in Jan’s

(b. 1940) achieved international fame in 1964 with his first novel I, Jan Cremer. At the author’s request, ‘a sure-fire bestseller’ was printed on the cover, right from the very first edition. Cremer’s controversial comments in the book were viewed by some as a threat to national security while at the same time he was praised by prominent colleagues like W.F. Hermans. The sequel was published in 1966 and also became a smash hit. His subsequent work has included travelogues, letters and an autobiographical account. JAN

CREMER

NEW LITERARY NON-FICTION

Jan Cremer

Jayne The first account of the turbulent romance between the author and the legendary Jayne Mansfield Published in 1964, the first edition of I, Jan Cremer was dedicated to sex symbol and actress Jayne Mansfield. She called the book ‘a wild and sexy masterpiece’ and the author ‘my Pop Hero’. Jayne is the autobiographical account of their shared adventure. Jan Cremer, on his uppers after a major conflict with his American publisher, agrees to accompany world-famous Jayne Mansfield on a publicity and nightclub tour. She is his childhood idol, and he is photographed with her as a publicity stunt. The photo becomes a romance, and before Jan knows it, the dominant Mansfield is dragging her Dutch beau with her on a crazy journey through South America. Through the eyes of Jan Cremer we see how the impossible ‘La Mansfield’ wallows in her fame and both enchants all those around her and drives them to despair.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Memoir – October 2018 – 155 pages 25

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‘Masterful biography’ - ***** NRC Handelsblad ‘An astonishing biography of an enchanted groupie. During the occupation she let three of Frommel’s boys go into hiding in the house on the Herengracht. Yet most of the boys felt

nothing but contempt

for her.’ – Trouw

‘Although Gisèle, as is evident from the biography, knew that sex was part of Frommer’s friendship model, it seems likely that she never confronted him on the matter. For her, “pedagogic eros” seems to have been an adequate cover.

Compelling biography.’ – Frank Ligtvoet Press on previous work: ‘A scintillating Volkskrant

portrait gleaming with life.’ **** de

(b. (1961) is a biographer and independent researcher. She wrote The City’s Pulse (1999), The Fight for the February Strike (2006) and The Invisible Enemy (2007), among other books. Her biography of Mina Kruseman (2013) was shortlisted for the Biography Prize 2014. ANNET MOOIJ

NEW LITERARY NON-FICTION

Annet Mooij

The Age of Gisèle Myth and Reality of an Artist ......

A revealing book about a dynamic artist’s life and the power of myth Gisèle van Waterschoot van der Gracht (1912-2013), daughter of an Austrian baroness and an Amsterdam patrician, divided her youth between Catholic boarding schools and a castle with seventy rooms. This beginning would prove to be the springboard for a multifaceted artist’s career and a life full of friendships and romances. She married Amsterdam’s ex-mayor Arnold d’Ailly and threw her lot in with the mysterious German poet Wolfgang Frommel and his crowd of young friends, to whom she offered shelter in her small Amsterdam apartment during the Nazi occupation. After the war, this gave rise to an exclusive house enshrouded in secrecy, ‘Castrum Peregrini’: Gisele’s own canal house family. Gisele succeeded in presenting her life as a fairy tale. But what did the reality behind the elegant façade actually look like? How did the liberated painter mange to survive in the misogynistic society of Castrum Peregrini? In The Age of Gisèle, Annet Mooij reconstructs her dynamic and fascinating life with an exceptional eye for detail. World rights: De Bezige Bij – Biography – September 2018 – 448 pages 27

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Roger Scruton: ‘All lovers of music have wondered why this art of pure sound should seem so full of feeling. Whatever your musical taste,

music will have opened your heart to a philosophical question: how can there be emotion, when there is no person to feel it, but only a sequence of sounds, stirring us without our knowing why? Alicja Gescinska gives us a lucid and engaging account of this most mysterious of arts, celebrating music and its vital place in our society, while gently and whatever your experience of philosophy,

introducing us to her very personal philosophy. The result is a delightful treatment of a delightful subject, which all thinking people should read.’ ALICJA GESCINSKA (b. 1981) is one of the

most prominent young philosophers of Belgium and the Netherlands. Her book The Conquest of Freedom (2011) received universal praise. With her first novel, A Kind of Love (2016), she won the 2017 Debut Prize. She was also the presenter of the philosophical television programme ‘Wanderlust’, in which she engaged in conversation with internationally renowned philosophers, writers, scientists and artists.

NEW LITERARY NON-FICTION

Alicja Gescinska

At Home in Music An exercise in humanity

Gescinska throws herself into a major theme of her work and philosophy: music.

Does music improve human beings and their communities? Philosophers have examined that question over many years with great scepticism. Plato warned that music can bring about dangerous changes in society. Centuries later, Adorno pointed to the damaging power of jazz, which he believed made for tame citizens. Alicja Gescinska is convinced that music is more uplifting than it is pernicious. It can play an important part in our personal and moral development. We dwell too little on this nowadays. In schools there is hardly any room left for music, and in daily life we see it mainly as a source of relaxation, distraction or consolation. In her lucid essay, Gescinska demonstrates convincingly that music is more a foundation than an ornament to our existence. Music allows us to come home to ourselves and creates a dwelling place for us in the world. World rights: De Bezige Bij – Music, Philosophy – October 2018 – 96 pages – Full English translation will soon be available 29

CARGO

‘Spark is a turbulent

thriller that you read in

one breath. Terpstra knows how to save the climax to the end.’ **** Readalicious ‘Terpstra sparks with Spark. With a capital S.’ ***** Samenlezenisleuker ‘ A realistic view of the tough world of top-class sport in which perseverance,

pain, passion and

jealousy predominate. ’ **** Thrillersandmore Press on previous work: ‘A fantastic

thriller, in the style of Karin

Slaughter’- **** Dagblad van het Noorden (b. 1974) studied journalism and art history. She made her debut in 2009 with Night Flight, which was nominated for the Shadow Prize and the Crimezone Thriller Award. Her international breakthrough came with Different, which sold to both France and Germany, and her thriller Together (2016) was shortlisted for the Gouden Strop. ANITA

TERPSTRA

NEW COMMERCIAL FICTION

Anita Terpstra

Spark 1

A fire breaks out in the house of a ballet-dancing couple. They accuse each other of arson and attempted murder. Who is telling the truth and who is lying? In the ballet world, Dutch Mischa and Russian Nikolaj are a celebrity dream couple. The car accident in which their small daughter died seems to have brought them even closer together. Then fire breaks out in the house where they are living temporarily. Mischa and Nikolaj survive the fire, but both end up in hospital severely injured. In a tworoom setting in alternating chapters, Mischa and Nik each tell their own story. It is up to a police inspector to identify the unreliable narrator. Nik claims that on the night of the fire he told Mischa that he wanted a divorce, which is why she wanted to kill him. According to Nik, Mischa has been drinking since the death of their daughter. He is worried about their son and wants to take him away. Mischa says it is the other way around: she wanted to divorce him… readers are kept on their toes until the very end in this tense psychological thriller. World rights: Cargo – option publisher: Blanvalet (Germany) – Psychological thriller – 288 pages – July 2018 – Sample translation and synopsis available – Selected by the Dutch Foundation for Literature for ‘10 Books from Holland’ 2018 (thriller) 31

SUCCESSFUL TITLES

Stefan Hertmans The Convert 85.000 copies sold ‘The Convert is a crucial book that will stir hearts and minds. […] Once again a testament to his outstanding authorship.’ **** de Standaard ‘From out of a small history Hertmans spins an immense story with impressive imagination.’ **** de Volkskrant .

In a small town in Provence, France, the people have spoken of a pogrom and a hidden chest since time immemorial. At the end of the nineteenth century a startling collection of Jewish documents was found in a synagogue in Cairo. It is here that Stefan Hertmans discovers the traces of a distinguished Christian noblewoman from the eleventh century who abandons her life for the love of a Jewish boy. He follows in the footsteps of this woman as she flees with her forbidden love and undertakes a dizzying journey full of hardships, hunted by everyone and everything. Hertmans based the story of The Convert on historical facts, including a letter of recommendation written by a rabbi on parchment, and he brings the Middle Ages to life with immense imagination and stylistic ingenuity. It is a story that draws him into a chaotic world of passion, hate, love and death, and one that in the end carries him from Cairo back to the small village in Provence where he has made his home for decades. World Rights: De Bezige Bij – Rights sold: Hanser Berlin (Germany), Marginesy (Poland), Harvill Secker (UK), Text (ANZ), Pantheon (USA, Canada), Gallimard (France), Marsilio (Italy), ArtPeople (Denmark), Norstedts (Sweden), Europa (Hungary), Fraktura (Croatia), Beletrina (Slovenia), Perseus (Bulgaria) – Novel – 314 pages – October 2016 – full German, French and English translations available Longlisted for the Prix Femina étranger 2018 32

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Tommy Wieringa The Blessed Rita ‘His best book.’ ‘Masterpiece.’ 130.000 copies sold ‘The masterly The Blessed Rita is at once both The Great Twente Novel and completely European. [...] It tells the story of a shrinking life in a shrinking region—but Wieringa’s version of that familiar story feels like the ultimate one.’ ***** NRC Handelsblad ‘It is his best book, his master hand has bested itself again. The depth is deeper, the views stretch farther. His style approaches perfection, or surpasses it.’ *****Algemeen Dagblad

His whole life, Paul Krüzen has lived with his father in an old, haunted farmhouse, not far from the German border. Where once his father took care of him, now he takes care of his father. In those fifty years, they have seen their village change drastically. The world is on the move: the Chinese now run the bars and restaurants in Mariënveen, while Russians, Bulgarians and Poles have become a familiar presence.. The great change began with a the arrival of a Russian pilot who escaped the Soviet Union in a crop duster and crashed in a cornfield behind their house at the height of the Cold War. This triggered a chain of events from which Paul Krüzen and his father have never fully recovered. The Blessed Rita is an enchanting memento for those left behind and an ode to those wanting to transcend themselves. World rights: De Bezige Bij – Rights sold: Scribe (UK/ANZ), Éditions Stock (France), Iperborea (Italy), Brombergs (Sweden), Hanser (Germany), Jelenkor (Hungary), Gyldendal (Norway); American rights handled for De Bezige Bij by Inkwell – Novel – 286 pages – October 2017 – full German and English translations soon available Shortlisted for the Bookspot, Libris Literature & E. du Perron Prizes 2018 33

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Onno Blom The Young Rembrandt A biography For the readers of Simons Schama’s Rembrandt’s Eyes and Walter Isaacson’s Leonardo Da Vinci, acclaimed Dutch biographer Onno Blom tells the untold story of the young Rembrandt in early 17th century Leiden Rembrandt is the world's best-known mystery. There are hardly any primary historical sources relating to his youth in Leiden. We have little more than a handful of stories from his earliest biographers – and, of course, his work: paintings, drawings and etchings – which today can be found in major museums all over the world. Who was Rembrandt, really? What made him tick? What secrets lie hidden in his paintings? In The Young Rembrandt, Onno Blom seeks out the roots of Rembrandt's talent, the spark of his genius. The book will bring the figure of Rembrandt and his times close to the reader, evoking the smell of paint in the studio and bringing to life the full-blooded spirit of the Dutch Golden Age. Written in the great narrative tradition of authors such as Simon Schama, Richard Holmes, and Geert Mak, The Young Rembrandt is a hugely entertaining read for a wide international readership – not for only scholars and experts, although we hope they'll find a few surprises, but for anyone with an interest in the life of that young, immensely talented Leiden artist at the start of the tempestuous Golden Age. World rights: De Bezige Bij – Rights sold: W.W. Norton (USA), Pushkin Press (UK) Dutch manuscript available 1 April 2019 – Publication October 2019 Onno Blom received the prestigious Dutch Biography Prize in September 2018 34

SUCCESSFUL TITLES

Mathijs Deen Down Old Roads

A journey through the history of Europe ‘His impressive historical knowledge allows him to move effortlessly through the ages.’ **** NRC Handelsblad ‘What do you get when you combine history and travel stories with an intoxicatingly excellent writing? You get Down Old Roads...A masterly work.’ – Het Belang van Limburg People have roamed throughout Europe for a million years. From the mysterious homo antecessor that left its footprints on the coast of England, to the traveller on today’s motorways. Under every footstep lies an older one, under every paved road a pack trail or wagon rut, under every footpath the prints of a hunter or prey. And yet, the long through roads of Europe do not hold a special place in the imaginations and identities of its residents. Why does the European have such an ambivalent relationship with the long roads of her continent? In search of the answer to that question, Mathijs Deen follows in the footsteps of the refugees, bandits, pilgrims, fortune seekers and conquerors who found their way along the coasts, rivers and roads of Europe, and tells their stories. From prehistoric times and the Roman Era, through the Middle Ages to the Europe of today. From the Strait of Gibraltar to Stockholm, from Rome to Boekelo. Down Old Roads is an adventurous journey through Europe and a fascinating trip through time. World rights: Thomas Rap – Rights sold: Dumont (Germany), Iperborea (Italy) – History – 416 pages – February 2018 – English sample translation available – Selected by the Dutch Foundation for Literature as one of the ‘10 Non-Fiction Books from Holland’ 2018 35

SUCCESSFUL TITLES

Ingrid Hoogendijk In Any Case, We’re Still Doing Fine A Dutch family in East Prussia, 1920-1946

‘[The book] became the turbulent story of a Dutch family in the Third Reich, which partly becomes enchanted by the Nazis, and partly is disgusted by them. This is how you get a quite unique insight in the daily life in Hitler’s Germany through Dutch eyes’ ***** NRC Handelsblad 1922 the Rotterdam cloth merchant Michiel Hoogendijk came into possession of the country estate of Schakenhof in East Prussia. There he, his wife and seven children experienced the rise of National Socialism, the war, the coming of the Russians and the collapse of the Third Reich. Decades later, his grand-daughter, Ingrid Hoogendijk, acquired a large collection of letters, written by members of the family to each other in those turbulent times. This book tells the gripping story of a family torn apart by war, and the story of East Prussia, a country that has vanished from our collective memory.

World rights: Thomas Rap – Historical non-fiction – 368 pages – March 2018 German synopsis & sample letter available

SUCCESSFUL TITLES

Kasper van Beek Recollection

Some memories are best forgotten

‘A fantastic debut, combining an intriguing plot with unexpected twists and a very surprising ending. Bravo!’ **** Vrij Nederland Detective Thriller Guide ‘ A wild ride which twists and turns tot a very intriguing end. Keeps you guessing to the last page.’ ***** Holland Media Olaf’s quiet life is turned upside down when he discovers a green envelope in the post. In it he finds a photo of himself, standing on the shore of a frozen lake, with an arm around the shoulders of another man. He has no memory of the photo, or the place where it was taken, and he has never seen the other man before. Though he can’t seem to find answers anywhere, his suspicions are roused when his family says they’re sure the whole thing is a joke and that he should just forget it. Together with Mila, a colleague who has her own reasons for helping him, Olaf begins a search for the man in the photo. It leads him from Amsterdam to Helsinki, and the nightmares that torment Olaf with increasing intensity appear to come surprisingly close to the truth. The more Olaf and Mila discover, the more desperate the attackers who pursue them become. Who sent the photo, and above all: why? World rights: Cargo – Rights sold: pre-empt Goldmann Verlag (Germany) – Thriller – 288 pages – April 2018 – German & English synopsis, English sample available – Selected by the Dutch Foundation for Literature as thriller for the ‘10 Fiction Books from Holland’ 37

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Judith Vanistendael, Mark Bellido Mikel Graphic novel based on a true story about a bodyguard in the Basque country The Basque country, Spain. A green paradise with wild beaches on the Atlantic coast, but also a mountainous area of sombre villages and drizzle, tormented for years by eta terrorism. Based on Mark Bellido’s autobiographical story, Judith Vanistendael has created an impressive graphic novel about a seller of sweets who decides to become a bodyguard. While protecting threatened politicians he moves further and further into a shadow existence that ultimately threatens to be fatal for him.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Rights sold: Les editions du Lombard (France), Reprodukt (Germany), SelfMadeHero (World English), Astiberri (Spain, Catalan) – graphic novel – 368 pages – September 2016 – French and German translations available 38

SUCCESSFUL TITLES

Daan Heerma van Voss Call it Love When do you know for sure that you love someone? ‘Call it Love isn’t just some novel about love, no, it’s a love story that could only have been written today, for this age. It’s a novel as indispensable, intense and tender as the love it describes. A tender knock out.’ ***** Cutting Edge ‘In Call it Love Daan Heerma van Voss emerges as the radiologist of love and the Instagram-generation.’ - de Morgen ‘A lesser writer might struggle to make all the ingredients work, but Heerma van Voss manages to present us with a totally natural narrative, that more than deserves literary recognition.’ **** The Association of Regional Newspapers Do I still believe in love? Thirty-four-year-old Tomas Wolf has not dared to ask himself that question for a long time. But now that his grandmother is considering ending her life and his best friend is seriously ill, he decides to believe. He opens himself up to love once more. And how. He falls for the girl A., who, influenced by what Tomas calls today’s ‘narcissistic era’, has a completely different view of love. Call It Love is a chronicle of our times as pitiless as it is enchanting: a mirror and hammer in one. World rights: De Bezige Bij – Novel – 272 pages – May 2018 English sample translation available 39

SUCCESSFUL TITLES

Hugo Claus The Rumours ‘Claus is truly a genius, as a painter, as a poet, as novelist and as a playwright. The Rumours is the darkest jewel among all his novels.’ – die Zeit ‘Impressive, incisive and wise.’ - NRC Handelsblad ‘The text radiates a delight in writing.’ - de Morgen ‘With a virtuoso’s touch, Claus the novelist skirts the abyss of topical events... Such narrative élan... A wonderful, often lyrical style.’ - het Parool ‘As always, Claus shows the formidable range of his language. Even when writing prose, he never neglects the fact that he is a poet.’ – Trouw ‘The road to civilisation has not been all that long,’ said Hugo Claus on the publication of The Rumours, ‘and corruption is an everyday reality here. That makes it all the more striking when there is a real explosion.’ Such an unwelcome disruption of the existing order is the theme of The Rumours. The book is set in the mid-1960s. René Catrijsse, deserter in a colonial war, returns to his Flemish village in the early 1960s. His arrival unleashes a series of puzzling incidents. Twenty years later René’s brother, Noël, tells a mysterious former police commissioner his gruesome fairy-tale of guilt and love. World rights: De Bezige Bij – Novel – 336 pages – 1996 – Film option sold – Previously published in Germany, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Estonia and Sweden 40

– COMING SOON –

Peter Buwalda

Otmar’s Sons Eight years after the international success of his novel Bonita Avenue, which sold 350.000 copies in the Netherlands alone, Peter Buwalda is back with a breath-taking saga Ludwig Smit, a young Shell employee, inches his way closer towards his father Johan Tromp, the great mystery of his life for 32 years. Master and servant are thrown together on Sakhalin Island, where Johan Tromp’s electrifying career in the oil industry suddenly teeters when a journalist named Isabelle Orthel arrives. She and Ludwig have a short but painful history going back to when they were students—and Tromp is also on guard, having met her in the Niger Delta under grim circumstances. Meanwhile, the question arises as to whether it’s wise to give her access to Ludwig’s world-famous step-brother, the concert pianist Dolf Appelqvist. Bordering on madness, Appelqvist’s light appears to— finally—be fading, were it not for discovering the long-lost third movement of Beethoven’s piano sonata, opus 111. World rights: De Bezige Bij – Selected option publishers: Hogarth/Crown (USA), Pushkin Press (UK), Rowohlt (Germany), Actes Sud (France), Salamandra (Spain) – Literary Fiction – Bound & paperback – 496 pages

de bezige bij present at the fair

Mark Beumer Director De Bezige Bij; Thomas Rap; Cargo

Francien Schuursma Publisher De Bezige Bij

Suzanne Holtzer Editor-in-chief fiction De Bezige Bij

Katrijn Van Hauwermeiren Editor-in-chief fiction De Bezige Bij

Haye Koningsveld Editor-in-chief non-fiction De Bezige Bij

Peter van der Zwaag Editor-in-chief translated fiction De Bezige Bij

Arend Hosman Publisher Thomas Rap

Marjolein Schurink Publisher Cargo

Saartje Schwachรถfer Editor Thomas Rap

Chris Kooi Editor De Bezige Bij; Cargo

Noora Lamers Digital product marketeer De Bezige Bij; Thomas Rap; Cargo

Marijke Nagtegaal Senior rights manager De Bezige Bij; Thomas Rap; Cargo

Uta Matten Rights manager De Bezige Bij; Thomas Rap; Cargo

Anne van den Heuvel Rights department De Bezige Bij; Thomas Rap; Cargo

THO MA S RA P

C ARG O