Non-fiction
Roxane van Iperen, I Promise
*Rights: William Morris Agency; film option * novel * 380 pages * 2023 * 55,000 copies sold * nominated for the Libris Literature Prize 2024
As long as I move, I’m safe
Twelve-year-old M grows up in two worlds At home there is chaos and violence, at school she adapts silently. Her parents are constantly on the run - from the outside world, each other, their own demonsdragging M. along, from village to village, from school to school. She seeks refuge in nature and with other outsiders - the residents of a holiday park, travelers in a trailer park, a group of artists in the forest But nowhere does she get the chance to take root, or, more importantly, to build a shared past with anyone To everyone, she is just a passer-by And if no one witnesses your life, do you even exist? I Promise is the story of a girl who has to fight everything in her young life to stay afloat And ultimately faces an impossible choice
Erik Brouwer, The Fighter of Auschwitz
*Rights sold: Cassell (World English) * WWII * 285 pages * 2023* Full English translation available
A testament to the endurance of humanity in the face of extraordinary evil
In 1943, the Dutch champion boxer, Leen Sanders, was sent to Auschwitz His wife and children were put to death while he was sent ‘to the left’ with the others who were fit enough for labour. Recognized by an SS officer, he was earmarked for a ‘privileged’ post in the kitchens in exchange for weekly boxing matches for the entertainment of the Nazi guards. From there, he devoted himself to resisting their limitless cruelty With great risk and danger to his own life, Leen spent years stealing, concealing and smuggling food and clothing from SS nursing units to alleviate the unbearable suffering of the prisoners in need He also regularly supplied extra food to the Dutch women who were victims of Dr Mengele’s experiment in Block 10. To his fellow Jews in the camp, he served as a rescuer, leader and role model, defending them even on their bitter death march to Dachau towards the end of the war.
Irwan Droog, Wally and Us
*Eco/travel *189 pages * January 2024
A journey in the wake of a world famous walrus
In March 2021, the people of Ireland's Valentia Island were surprised by a unique visitor: a young, tired walrus, who proceeded to travel along the coast of Western Europe in the months that followed, regularly hoisting himself aboard small boats along the way Why was this walrus so far from home? Had he fallen asleep on an ice floe and drifted away, or was the melting sea ice in the Arctic forcing him south? It seems we will increasingly be sharing our habitat with species we used to be able to admire only in zoos How do we deal with this? Irwan Droog followed in Wally's footsteps, searching for answers. Wally and Us tells the story of a walrus who left an indelible impression, against the backdrop of human-animal relations in a rapidly changing world.
Succesful
Fiction
Gijs Wilbrink, The Animals
* Rights sold: Ullstein (Germany); Bunker Books (Spain), film option * novel * 399 pages * 2022 * Sample by Sam Garrett , 41,000 copies sold With intimidating skill Wilbrink presents the history of a family clan
Tom Keller belongs to the most notorious family in a region filled with poachers, mink farms and other shady enterprises He grows up in this milieu full of secrets and blessed with a prodigious talent for motocross When, as a grown man, he suddenly goes missing, his rebellious daughter returns to the home turf she was so eager to leave behind in search of him, culminating in a family reunion that takes a dramatic turn.
Mathijs Deen, Among People
*Rights sold: Mare (Germany); film option * novel * 206 pages * 2016 * Sample by Liz Waters
‘Farmer’s son seeking woman. Lives alone. 200 acres.’
Jan has lived alone for years since the sudden deaths of his parents The heir to a beautiful farm close to the North Sea, he cannot escape the loneliness that awaits him each day when the farm work is done He decides to place a personal ad He’s searching for a woman for conversation, for sex, and – if he’s lucky – even for love and a child The woman who answers, however, has plans of her own. She wants nothing more than a simple life in a quiet place close the sea For her, Jan’s farm offers an escape from the busy city and from a reckoning with her past And when she discovers that she can see the sea from the farmhouse loft, she makes up her mind to live there – no matter what.
Non-fiction
Mathijs Deen, Down Old Roads
* Rights sold: Dumont (Germany), MacLehose Press (world English), Iperborea (Italy), Solbitkil (South Korea) * history * 336 pages * 2018 * full English translation by Jane Hedley-Prole and Jonathan Reeder, 22,000 copies sold A fascinating journey through the history of European roads
For a million years people have been traveling throughout Europe from the mysterious homo antecessor who left his footprints on the coast of England to the traveller on the motorways of today Under every footstep lies an older one, under every paved road a donkey trail or wagon rut, under every footpath the prints of a hunter or prey And yet the long through roads of Europe don’t hold a special place in the imaginations and identities of their residents Why do the Europeans have such an ambivalent relationship with the long roads of their continent?
Arnold van de Laar, Under the Knife
*Rights sold: Pattloch/Droemer Knaur (Germany), KOC Üniversitesi (Turkey), John Murray (UK), St Martin’s Press (USA), EULAY (South-Korea), United Sky (China), Domain (Taiwan), Eksmo (Russia), Tchelet (Israel), Salamandra (Spain), Literacki (Poland), Dobrovsky (Czech Republic), Codice (Italy), Helikon (Hungary), Japan Shobun-sha (Japan), Dark Side (Brazil), Editions First/Edi8 (France) * popular medicine * 414 pages * 2014 * full English translation by Andy Brown
The entire history of surgery told in twenty-eight remarkable operations
From the dark centuries of bloodletting and 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 (gunshot wounds), Lenin (cerebral infarction), Houdini (ruptured appendix), Albert Einstein (aneurysm) and Bob Marley (melanoma under the toenail) Van de Laar uses medical case histories that fire the imagination to examine issues of the past, present and future His tone is lucid and professional, and harsh reality is tempered with plenty of humour, making Under the Knife a rich medical and cultural history and a modern anatomy lesson for us all.
Selma van de Perre, My Name is Selma
* Rights sold: Transworld (UK + ANZ), Scribner (USA/Canada), BTB (Germany), Leduc (France) Mondadori (Italy), Matar (Israel), Wielka Litera (Poland), Tammi (Finland), Athenaeum (Hungary), Vogais (Portugal), Euromedia (Czech Republic), Grupo Pensamento (Brazil), Storyside (Iceland), Makedonika Litera (Macedonia), Polirom (Romenia) * memoir * 256 pages * 2020 * English translation by Alice Tetley-Paul * 95,000 copies sold She loses just about everything: her parents, her sister, her name, her identity.
She was seventeen when WWII broke out Until then, being Jewish had never played a large role in her life Suddenly, however, it became a question of life and death Though she was summoned to register for a work camp in 1942, she managed to evade it She then joined the resistance Under the pseudonym Margareta van der Kuit, Marga for short, she forged documents and delivered them throughout the country She escaped the Nazis on multiple occasions But in July 1944 she was betrayed and transported via Camp Vught to Ravensbrück Unlike her sister and parents, she survived the horrors of the camp During that time no one knew she was Jewish, and no one knew her real name. It was only after the war that she dared say it again: my name is Selma.
Humour
Youp van ’t Hek, Marije Tolman, Oceans of Time
* Rights sold: Coppenrath (Germany) * humour * 80 pages, ill. * 2022 * Full English translation, 27,000 copies sold
The ultimate gift for every retiree and anyone who likes a good laugh
You’ve stopped working Your career has ended That means you ’ re retired But then what? You have all the time in the world! But what will you do with it? Youp van ’t Hek, together with illustrator Marije Tolman, has light hearted answers to these light questions A book chockfull of tips and wisdom to make the life of the unemployed retiree as pleasant as possible.‘The retirement party. You know everyone. You know them too well. Way too well. And they’re all there. Bob, that snake who spent years angling for your job He hates your guts and always whispered the most awful things about you Look at him He can barely hide his relief ’
For more information contact:
Foreign rights director: Marijke Nagtegaal, m nagtegaal@debezigebij nl Rights manager: Simon Reinders, s reinders@thomasrap nl
Publisher: Jasper Henderson, j.henderson@thomasrap.nl