NEW DUTCH

London Book Fair Issue Spring 2020 Dutch Foundation for Literature FICTION New Dutch Fiction? Yes! It’s the new title of the 10 Books From Holland brochure we have been publishing for more than 20 years. We changed the title to make clearer which genre of books we are promoting.

Who decides the contents? Do you work together with Dutch publishers and agents? We want to showcase the best fiction from the . We keep each other informed Most titles have been published about interest in titles and recently and have done very well rights sales. When we com- in terms of reviews, sales and mission a sample translation, awards or nominations. Equally we usually share the costs. important is the question: However, we always make our ‘Does it travel?’ Our specialists own decisions, and remain Barbara den Ouden, Victor completely independent. Schiferli, Tiziano Perez and Dick Broer try and keep up with How many books by one all the fiction that appears and author will you support? read as much as they can. As off this issue, we have worked with We can support three books by an advisory panel, who give us one author. If the author has advice and input on new fiction. changed foreign publishing The final selection is made house, previous titles are not by the Dutch Foundation for counted. Literature. Are all books in your brochure At book fairs, do you eligible for a grant? talk about these books exclusively? Yes they are, with a maximum subsidy of 100% of the trans- While we like to discuss our lation costs for classics and catalogue, there are always 70% for contemporary prose, other titles: books that have based on the actual fee paid by just appeared or are about to the publisher and capped at a come out or books that just maximum level of 10 eurocent missed our selection. Our advi- per word. sors read as much fiction as they can. ANSWERS

SPRING 2020 1 Are books that aren’t included non-fiction, we support transla- The Foundation’s specialists in your brochure eligible? tion costs only. are present at prominent book fairs, including Frankfurt and As long as it’s a good literary We would like to invite a Dutch London. They will be happy to title, it probably is. We make our author for a promotional visit give you more information. decisions based on three crite- ria: literary quality of the book, If you organise a good pro- status of the publishing house gramme and offer the author and quality of the translator. You accommodation, we can cover can always ask in advance if a the travel costs. book is eligible or not. How to apply for the Can you help us find a Fellowship? translator? Every September, we organise a Lists of experienced translators fellowship (4 days) for publishers are provided by e-mail. We want and editors. We do not have an Barbara den Ouden Victor Schiferli to work with somebody who is application procedure, but you [email protected] [email protected] can always send us an e-mail not on your list. Then we require Eastern and Middle Europe Scandinavia stating your interest. a sample translation of 20 pages Mediterranean countries German and and the translator’s CV. If the Russia English-speaking countries translation is good, the transla- Individual publisher’s visits Arabic world Poetry tor will be added to our list. If the Graphic novels translation needs repair, we can We host 8 to 10 publishers and make suggestions. If the trans- editors per year on an individual lation is beyond repair, you are basis. Usually, these are great advised to hire somebody who is if you already have one or more on our list. Dutch authors on your list and would like to see them, How do we apply for a combined with a schedule of translation subsidy? meetings.

We need contracts with the What’s Schwob? rights holders and the translator, plus the application form. You Schwob.nl is a European Tiziano Perez Dick Broer can submit digitally from our network for forgotten or undis- [email protected] [email protected] website: www.letterenfonds.nl/ covered books, established en/translation-subsidy. and maintained by translators, Managing director Literary thrillers Meetings are held six times a publishers and editors, research- Brazil year, the dates are announced on ers, readers and critics. China our website. Japan Can I subscribe to Do you subsidise production New Dutch Fiction? costs? Please leave your card at our This is possible in the case of stand, or send a message. editions of poetry, illustrated All our past issues are available SPECIALISTS children’s books or graphic at www.letterenfonds.nl. novels. For regular fiction and

2 NEWDUTCHFICTION SPRING 2020 3 Publishing details Finse dagen (2020) Herman Koch 288 pages 78,925 words Finnish Days Sample translation available

Rights Ambo Anthos A probing novel about grief and coming of age Orli Naamani [email protected]

Rights sold Finland (Siltala), (KiWi), France (Belfond)

Herman Koch became known for his In Finland, where physical labor served plot-driven literature, full of page- as an antidepressant, he couldn’t turning suspense and the seductive use language to get by, let alone hide lure of evil. They’re thrillers and behind irony. He knew two words of situation comedies at the same time, Finnish: ‘äiti’ (mother) and ‘kuollut’ in which Koch castigates the latest (dead). Nearly all of the Finnish episode well-intentioned trends. With this new is recounted in the first of the book’s novel, he opts for a different, more three parts, although Koch makes autobiographical approach. strategic use of some omitted informa- tion towards the end. But Finnish Days 1973. Herman Koch was nineteen and covers Koch’s entire life, complete with Herman Koch trying to figure things out. Six months tangents and detours – from his love of (1953) is an internationally best- after graduating high school, shortly motorbikes to his strange relationship selling author. In 2009 he wrote The after the death of his mother, he left with hotel rooms. Dinner, which was translated into 42 languages and acquired world fame. for Finland. In the dense forests of the Koch has found a clever alternative to During subsequent years, bestsellers eastern province of North Karelia, he the powerful, convergent quality of his such as Summer House with Swim- sped around on a tractor, milked cows, previous, plot-driven work. Here, follow- ming Pool (2011), Dear Mr M. (2014) plowed fields, dragged trees around, ing the path of his life gives the book the and The Ditch (2016) were published. made merry at village parties, drank required structure, and the core theme In Finnish Days Koch returns to his youth, which also inspired his debut methylated spirits, sawed into his own – the genesis of Koch’s life as a reclusive novel Save Us, Maria Montanelli limbs and kissed a rural beauty. ‘I wait writer – throws that life into intriguing ‘Koch commands his metier with an (1989). for you,’ she told him. relief. And the truth? ‘The only truth effortless superiority.’ But Finnish Days is not a love story. is the book,’ he says. Finnish Days is Photo: Maarten Kools de Volkskrant The youthful Koch had gone to Finland a book about how stories are shaped to be alone, acting on a deeply-felt and reshaped, about the strength and ‘This could very well be Koch’s existential urge that he wasn’t to under- weakness of memory, and an intimate stand until much later in life. His father portrait of the writer as a young man, best novel.’ had told him to think about his future. contrasted with the present day. Het Parool In Koch’s reflections on the subject, we recognize a portrait of the writer as ‘Even more than a book about a young man, or rather – a portrait of a memories, this is a book about lost young man in mourning, who wants to memories and that is the thing that be a writer but daren’t admit it. makes this one so special.’ Trouw

4 NEWDUTCHFICTION SPRING 2020 5 Publishing details Pastorale (2019) Stephan Enter 288 pages, 86,831 words

Pastoral Publisher Van Oorschot, Frederike Doppenberg [email protected]

Coming-of-age novel about being uprooted Rights 2 Seas Agency, Marleen Seegers and finding freedom [email protected]

Translated titles Compassie: France (Actes Sud, 2018), Hungary (Gondolat, 2017) Grip: France (Actes Sud, 2015), Could there be a more quintessentially were isolated from Dutch society and Germany (Berlin, 2013), Hungary Dutch theme for a novel than severing not given the opportunity to integrate. (Gondolat, 2015), , (Iperborea, ties with the Reformed Church? You However, they ended up never going 2014), Norway (Font Forlag, 2013) could argue that ‘our’ relationship with back, and rising tensions led to several Spel: Denmark (Turbine, 2013), the former Dutch colonies comes in a terrorist attacks by young Moluccans in Germany (Berlin Verlag, 2009) close second to this defining topic. the 1970s. High-school student Oscar de Vree In his fifth novel, Pastoral, Stephan is asked to deliver homework to a Stephan Enter (1968) debuted in 1999 with his col- Enter sets about combining two Dutch Moluccan classmate who is temporarily lection of short stories Winterhanden worlds. He even has them exist quite absent from school, and falls in love (Chilblained Hands). His first novel, literally side by side, in a sleepy coun- with the boy’s sister. It’s the start of a ‘As always, he is brilliant and Lichtjaren (Light Years), published in try village in the mid-1980s, where the torrid, confusing summer and a series controlled in his dissections of the 2004, was nominated for the Libris Reformed neighbourhood is right next of encounters he’ll look back on as ‘the adolescent experience, and in his Literature Prize. His third book, Spel door to the local Moluccan community most important events of his adoles- (Game; 2007), demonstrated that descriptions of the atmosphere. But he was already one of the foremost (immigrants from the Maluku Islands cence.’ Meanwhile, Oscar’s older sister Pastoral is even more daring than his writers of his generation. His third in the Indonesian archipelago). But Louise is also spending the summer in previous work – the author is taking novel, Grip, sold over 50,000 copies. the two areas might as well be oceans the village. She’s angry with her mother, bigger risks.’ It received universal praise, was nominated for the Libris Prize for apart – the Reformed villagers shun the who is becoming more religious with de Volkskrant newcomers, accusing them of all sorts every Sunday that passes, and angry Literature and the AKO Literature Prize, and it won the Golden BookOwl of terrible misdeeds. with the Reformed community that ‘The impressive thing about Award, the C.C.S. Crone Prize and the The history of the Moluccan popula- has stolen her childhood. This results Pastoral is that the book takes a F. Bordewijk-Award. tion in the Netherlands – most of whom in diverting, searing monologues and political stance while at the same Photo: Annaleen Louwes come from the island of Ambon – is heated discussions. time showing the complexity of as complicated as it is tragic. Initially, What may be even more exciting than the situation, by closely tracking many of them fought on the side of Oscar and Louise’s carefully constructed the thoughts of its two sensitive the Dutch in the Indonesian War of storylines is Enter’s impressively rich Independence in 1948. After the proc- style. Just as in his previous work, his narrators.’ lamation of the Republic of Indonesia, prose is consistently outstanding. De Groene Amsterdammer it was difficult for them to remain in Almost everything he describes is their home country. Some 3,500 Moluc- brought to life in apt, vivid detail. ‘Irresistibly funny and astute. But for cans were shipped to the Netherlands, all his often brilliant descriptions, where they were housed in camps. The above all I would call Enter a master plan was that they would return to the of tender moments.’ Moluccas later on, which is why they Trouw

6 NEWDUTCHFICTION SPRING 2020 7 Publishing details Zwarte schuur (2019) Oek de Jong 489 pages Black Barn 151,103 words Publisher Atlas Contact Hayo Deinum An accusation turns the life of a world-famous [email protected] artist upside down Rights Liepman Agency Mark Koralnik [email protected]

Right sold In a grand, sweeping novel, Oek de Fran is aware of his background. She Italy (Neri Pozza) Jong shows how artist Maris Coppoolse admires his work but is aware that is tortured by his past and the huge he’s sick of her. She has two children Translated titles impact this has, not only on his work, from a previous relationship with a Please see but also on the lives of his loved ones. photographer and filmmaker who then en.vertalingendatabase.nl died in a car accident near Rome. Her The novel opens with Maris and his daughter Stan is a war photographer, wife arguing in a taxi on their way to and her son Thijs is a journalist. Thijs is Oek de Jong the opening of a career retrospective at level-headed and analytical and closer to (1952) broke through in 1979 with his the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. his mother; Stan is impulsive and tem- debut novel Opwaaiende zomerjurken Maris is tense; the noise on the street peramental and has a close relationship (Billowing Summer Dresses). Over fif- is making him aggressive, and he takes with Maris. teen months, the novel was reprinted everything Fran says as a provocation. In his characteristic, visceral style nineteen times and sold 95,000 cop- Fran feels agitated and tries to ignore – rich with visual and tactile detail – ies. He confirmed his status as one of the Netherlands’ top authors with the Maris’ high-strung mood. After twenty De Jong has Maris relive his past. He philosophical and equally successful years, they’re practically strangers to describes in detail the events in the novel Cirkel in het gras (Circle in the one another in a relationship full of fear run-up to and on the day of the fatal ‘Oek de Jong is a gifted, evocative Grass, 1985) and Hokwerda’s kind (Hokwerda’s Child, 2002), a tragic and mistrust: ‘they belonged to a gen- accident, and how Maris rebuilds his storyteller with insight into the eration that had learned to talk freely life in the aftermath, growing into a cel- portrait of a woman. Pier and Ocean human psyche and an eye for sublime (2013) was shortlisted for the Libris about sex, but their pain and hurt had ebrated artist. In the course of this story, details – details that are surprising, Literature Prize and won the Gouden driven them back into the silence and he also paints a vivid picture of the gritty moving, thought-provoking and that Boekenuil (‘Golden Book Owl’). silent suffering of their parents.’ Amsterdam of the ’80s, with its artists command admiration. Black Barn has Photo: Marie-Jeanne van Hövell tot Westerflier Maris is a big man with a boom- and drug addicts. all the makings of a classic.’ ing voice and a striking face. He lives In the novel’s impressive final section, predominantly in the past, but at the Maris and Fran travel to La Gomera. de Volkskrant same time tries to repress it. His life is After all the darkness, De Jong offers his marked by two traumatic events in his characters and readers some light. ‘With his in-depth psychological childhood. He is abused by three boys. Maris comes to terms with Matty’s insights and a narrative arc that Then, several weeks later, he plays a sex death, and the marital crisis that he and bends inexorably towards healing, game with Matty, the girl next door, in a Fran have been stuck in for over a year Oek de Jong has once again written black barn. She ends up falling from the seems to be resolved. an instant classic, the kind that hay loft and she dies. He is charged with you’re almost surprised is still being manslaughter and has to spend some written.’ time in a youth offenders’ institution. de Groene Amsterdammer

8 NEWDUTCHFICTION SPRING 2020 9 Publishing details Bezette gebieden (2020) Arnon Grunberg 432 pages 121,657 words Occupied Territories Sample translation available

Rights Lebowski Agency A groundbreaking novel on what we consider Jasper Henderson jasper.henderson@ to be reality, truth and love lebowskipublishers.nl

Translated titles Please see en.vertalingendatabase.nl As a writer, Grunberg set himself the dom. He suffers a public fall from grace task of filling up the gaps in human in Amsterdam after one of his female memory with fiction. That’s how he patients comes out about having been gave meaning to life and enabled his abused by him. Kadoke flees and falls readers to live vicariously through his in love with his second cousin Anat. work. Twenty years after his debut, He and his father travel to a settlement Grunberg set out to write a major where – he is shocked to discover – he novel about his mother Hannelore, is welcomed as the Messiah, the one who survived Auschwitz as a child. He who can father Anat’s children. But that Arnon Grunberg moved back into his childhood home does require that he prove, in front of (1971) is one of the most important but on the evening of February 9th, his mother-in-law, that he’s not just Dutch writers of his generation. 2015 she died, at the age of 87. ‘Now ‘another impotent Jew’ – resulting in a He writes novels, plays, essays, I have to become my own mother,’ scene that’s as hilarious as it is poetry and columns. His work has harrowing. been translated into 29 different he wrote. languages and has received many Grunberg is a boundary-breaking awards. Grunberg was expelled from In the novel Birthmarks (2015), a grown- writer. What’s amazing is that the hel- ‘This is Grunberg at the peak school at the age of 17. He’d initially up son stands in front of the door of ter-skelter of painful and bizarre scenes of his abilities [...] Rarely has wanted to be an actor, but shifted his his parental home in Amsterdam. His in Occupied Territories isn’t just shock- Grunberg written about love with focus to writing. He was 23 when he name is Otto Kadoke, and he works as ing and alienating. It’s also moving and published his debut, Blue Mondays, such surprising sincerity and appearing like a devastating meteor a psychiatrist at a crisis center. Kadoke speaks to the meaning of our existence. persuasiveness.’ in the literary firmament. Occupied violates all the protocols to keep his At the same time, Grunberg’s ‘revalua- NRC Handelsblad Territories is his thirteenth novel. suicidal patients alive. Meanwhile, he tion of all values’ sheds sharp light on is doing everything in his power to keep what we consider to be reality, truth and Photo: Bettina Fürst – Fastré ‘A testimony to Grunberg’s ability to his elderly Jewish mother safe. Then love. This is literature at its finest. describe life – with all its warmth, he learns that his mother is really his juiciness and emotionality – at its father. ‘Your mother has a penis,’ says most tragic and cynical [...] Reading the nurse who puts her in the shower. Kadoke is messed up and detached, Grunberg remains a tremendously but he does succeed at one thing: his exciting experience.’ mother is still alive and well on the final Trouw page. In Occupied Territories, Kadoke and ‘The most enlightened and mature his reluctant mother – who, once again, that we’ve seen Grunberg to date.’ is his father – go to Israel to find free- De Telegraaf

10 NEWDUTCHFICTION SPRING 2020 11 Publishing details De nobele autist (2020) Romana Vrede 197 pages The Noble Autist 57,581 words Rights De Arbeiderspers Jolijn Spooren Moving debut about a mother and her son, [email protected] who has autism and learning difficulties

Romana Vrede created a much- defend his behavior in public, and ends acclaimed theatre show about her son up feeling like ‘a sad black woman with Charlie, who has autism and a learning her sad black child.’ disability: Who’s Afraid of Charlie The chapters are told from the Stevens? He is also the focal point of perspective of the mother, who regularly her debut novel, The Noble Autist. quotes from books and plays. Charlie’s fictional response to her story is told De Vrede’s biggest fear is that no one in footnotes. This is how the author will be able to give Charlie the care he gives her nonverbal son a voice, with needs once she dies – that there will be the novel creating the space for some- no one left who understands him. The thing that is impossible in real life – a book starts with her imagining Charlie’s dialogue between mother and son. De death, a death she won’t be around to Vrede’s determination to empathize witness, but which, with great com- with her son rubs off on the reader. The ‘An impressive and inspired self- passion and affection, she explores in Noble Autist is a call for compassion for examination, an impassioned plea for Romana Vrede fictional form: ‘I now give you my pres- those who are different, but above all more understanding without any sort (Paramaribo, 1972) is an actor and ence in print.’ She then tells the story of it’s a moving declaration of love from a of moralism. Raw and powerful, but director with Het Nationale Theater. She received the Theo d’Or – the most her life before Charlie – of how she fell mother to her son. also funny and, above all, empathetic in love with his father, the moment of important Dutch theater prize – for – and well-written, with an impressive her role in RACE. In 2019, she made his conception, his birth and the reali- literary structure. Vrede succeeds in Dit is de leven, a much-acclaimed zation that he was different from other holding up a mirror to us: who gets to documentary about autistic children. children. decide what is ‘normal’?’ She describes the happy moments, Photo: Benny Stroet Dutch writer and TV presenter and calls him the wisest person she Cornald Maas knows. But the constant care of her son is hard on her: he is nonverbal, can’t go to the bathroom independently, and can About Who’s Afraid of Charlie Stevens: be so physically aggressive sometimes that his care worker ends up getting ‘A confronting and moving portrait a brain contusion. She describes the whose merit goes beyond just the despair and the exhaustion, the reac- artistic quality of the production. tions from other people, her own shame It shows how valuable it is to have a in public and her sense of guilt about different perspective.’ that. She doesn’t always explain or De theaterkrant

12 NEWDUTCHFICTION SPRING 2020 13 Publishing details 23 seconden (2019) Kees van Beijnum 392 pages 103,271 words 23 Seconds Sample translation available

Rights De Bezige Bij Writer discovers the truth about her mother’s Marijke Nagtegaal [email protected] murder in an ingeniously constructed Uta Matten roman noir [email protected] Translated titles De ordening: Germany (DVA, 2000) De offers: Germany (Bertelsmann, Anne Lieftinck grew up in Amsterdam’s On that fateful evening, Anne had heard 2016) Red Light District where twenty years a voice in the house and smelled after- ago her mother, who was a sex worker shave. Was it Hayo, hiding in her moth- in one of the window brothels, was er’s bedroom? She is determined to bludgeoned to death with a hammer. find out the truth by talking to as many Haantje, a boy living nearby at the time, witnesses as possible. Van Beijnum was charged with the crime. He had skilfully conjures up a cast of different the motive, means and opportunity shadowy characters – a motley chorus – Anne’s mother was constantly slan- that accompanies Anne on her danger- dering him, and his fingerprints were ous quest. found on the hammer. Van Beijnum grew up in Amsterdam’s Red Light District himself and he paints Kees van Beijnum Anne, who overcame her humble a visceral portrait of the area as a sep- (1954) broke through with bestsellers like Dichter op de Zeedijk (Poet on beginnings, has become a well-known arate community, governed by its own the Zeedijk, 1995) and De oesters writer and is working on a book about social codes. Every move the characters van Nam Kee (Oysters at Nam Kee’s, her mother’s murder. One day she is make turns out to be another cog in 2000), which was later turned into a asked to write a contribution for a book the plot of this gripping novel, building successful movie. He writes in the ‘An accomplished, powerful portrait of tradition of Capote, Hemingway and of photographs commemorating her towards an ending that leaves no one the Red Light District – a place that’s high-school boyfriend Hayo, who died in untouched. Faulkner. Van Beijnum spent most of difficult to get away from, where his childhood in the cafés and hotels a bombing in . He’d lived on you’re at risk of getting pulled under run by his family on Amsterdam’s Anne’s street and wasn’t afraid of any- by the self-destructive current that Zeedijk. one – undaunted, he made a career for seems to be prevalent there.’ Photo: Keke Keukelaar himself photographing squatters’ riots, drug addicts and, later on, war zones. De Telegraaf Her research increasingly leads her to doubt that Haantje is really guilty of the ‘23 Seconds sounds like a thriller, crime. The excerpts from his journals but it’s much more than that. It’s an that she gets to read paint a picture of a intriguing portrayal of a certain era, somewhat naive boy who likes to draw of a certain place and the oftentimes and is trying to escape the suffocating disturbed relationships between Salvation Army environment that his people. Love, betrayal […] Van mother is immersed in – not some- Beijnum describes it all with ease, one who’d be capable of such a brutal without resorting to clichés.’ murder. De Zondag

14 NEWDUTCHFICTION SPRING 2020 15 Publishing details De mannen van Maria (2019) Anneloes Timmerije 344 pages 86,107 words Maria’s Men 5,000 copies sold

Rights Querido How a girl from humble beginnings worked Jolijn Spooren her way up from maidservant to extremely [email protected] wealthy woman Translated title Slaapwandelen bij daglicht: Germany (edition fünf, 2018)

The protagonist of this novel, Maria board of directors. She climbs the social van Aelst, really existed. We don’t know ladder, can’t seem to get pregnant and much about her, other than that she is bored out of her mind. As much as was married to Antonio van Diemen, was possible for a woman in those days, Governor-General of the former Dutch she takes risks and breaks with con- East Indies between 1637 and 1645, vention. She helps her third husband that their marriage remained childless maintain the clove monopoly and rules Anneloes Timmerije and that she died an extremely rich the roost in Batavia’s social circles. (1955) is a journalist and author of literary and historical non-fiction. In woman. Timmerije has largely filled in Flouting all the rules, she starts trading 2005 she made her fiction debut with the details of Maria’s life herself and in diamonds. Over time, she grows to be the short-story collection Zwartzuur made her into a smart, headstrong the ‘queen of Batavia.’ When she finally (Black and Sour), which received the woman. moves back to Amsterdam in 1646, 2006 Vrouw & Kultuur Debuutprijs she is among the one hundred richest (Woman & Culture Debut Prize). This In 1625, Maria van Aelst leaves for people in the Republic. initial success was followed by her first novel, De grote Joseph (The Great Batavia (present-day Jakarta) on a Dutch In her fifth work of fiction, Tim- Joseph, 2010), Slaapwandelen bij East India Company ship. She and six merije – a journalist who herself has ‘A lively portrait of a 17th-century daglicht (Sleepwalking in Broad other girls are being sent to give birth Indonesian roots – vividly describes the Daylight, 2013) and, together with businesswoman, and a fantastic Charles den Tex, Het vergeten verhaal to Dutch progeny: ‘We went to bear 17th century world of scurvy, swamp portrait of the era. Timmerije children, shipped at the request of the fever, slavery and pirates, and takes us van een onwankelbare liefde in describes it all equally vividly: the oorlogstijd­ (2014), which was trans- gentlemen over there, seven girls, most inside the colonial, patriarchal mindset hardships of life at sea, the thriving lated into English as Finding Her of whom had never even been kissed.’ that existed back then. Maria’s Men is a East India Company, the extreme (World Editions, 2016). After a hazardous, nine-month journey, gripping story about a self-made woman boredom of women in the upper Photo: Esther Hessing Batavia turns out to be in the middle of a who seizes life by the horns. classes. She doesn’t allow the dangerous, swampy plain. Maria is cho- novel’s world to be too colored by sen by an older, upper-class gentleman, her 21st-century perspective: no who soon afterwards dies. Her second husband, too, passes away within a year one is fazed by corporal punishment, – at just 22 years old, she has already slavery is a fact of life.’ been widowed twice. de Volkskrant Because Maria marries increasingly powerful men, she ends up privy to a lot ‘Timmerije has good taste and a of information – for example about the skilled pen, and she did thorough decisions made by the Seventeen Gen- research.’ tlemen, the Dutch East India Company’s AD Magazine

16 NEWDUTCHFICTION SPRING 2020 17 Publishing details De muren vielen om (1957, March 2020) Henriette Roosenburg 320 pages The Walls Came Tumbling Down 80,000 words Rights Cossee Stella Rieck Three women in the Dutch resistance movement [email protected]

are liberated by the Russians in 1945, but have to Rights sold escape their liberators in a rowboat Germany (Aufbau), Italy (Fazi), Scribe (World English)

May 1945. Three women from the They set out on foot for the River Elbe Dutch resistance movement are with a Dutch sailor, Dries. Here they languishing in a German Nazi prison. steal a rowboat called the ‘Montgomery’ The thunder of war outside tells them in hopes of making it to Hamburg, in that the Allied forces are advancing, but the British-occupied zone. They have they could still end up being executed hilarious encounters with Russian at the eleventh hour. After the Russian soldiers, but they are also cautious – the Russians frequently rape women. Before army has liberated them, they find Henriette Roosenburg themselves faced with an unexpected they get to Hamburg, they are forced off (1916 ­–1972) was born into a wealthy question: how do you find your way the water by gunfire and put in a Rus- family of doctors in . During home without help in a country that’s sian camp. Eventually they are handed the Second World War, she worked for completely in ruins? over to the Americans as former ‘politi- an influential illegal Dutch newspa- cal prisoners.’ They can finally go home. per, Het Parool, until a secret agent Henriette, Nel and Joke were sentenced recruited her to a clandestine route A moving yet light-footed memoir, for smuggling people and intelligence to death by the Nazis in 1944 for help- The Walls Come Tumbling Down tells the over the border into Spain. In 1994 ing Allied pilots who’d been shot down true story of a journey, with women as she established a military espionage and smuggling military intelligence the unexpected leads. Their liberation route to Switzerland for the Dutch to England. Before their sentence is and journey home required just as much government. After the War, Roosen- carried out in the Netherlands, they find courage, inventiveness and humor as burg worked in New York as a reporter for Time, LIFE and Fortune. The Walls themselves in a German prison, where their dangerous work in the resistance Came Tumbling Down (1957) made her they keep up their spirits by singing and and their imprisonment had. The instantly famous and was a bestseller doing embroidery. literary style almost makes you forget in both the US and the Netherlands. Their euphoria upon being liberated that this book is a historical eyewitness is followed by the sobering realization account of an unexposed period in Ger- ‘It’s an absolute knockout.’ that no one will be coming to help man history: the chaotic first weeks after Viking Publishers, 1957 them. No one in the Netherlands knows the end of the Second World War. if they’re even still alive or where they The afterword by historian Sonja van ‘A female Bridge on the are. Germany is in ruins and flooded ’t Hof provides more context on Roosen- River Kwai.’ by hundreds of thousands of survivors burg’s life and the impressive role she Hollywood actress Jan Sterling, 1958 from camps and prisons. Without played in the resistance. identity documents, the women – weak- ened from their time in prison – are not ‘Here is a book full of utterly allowed to leave the Soviet occupation unself-conscious heroism.’ zone. The Washington Post, 1983

18 CLASSIC NEWDUTCHFICTION SPRING 2020 19 Publishing details Verloren vrouw (2019) Charles den Tex 384 pages A Woman Lost 14,390 words Rights Harper Collins Erwin Koning Tech thriller about identity and what can and [email protected]

can’t be made Translated titles De macht van meneer Miller: English (WorldEditions, 2015), Italian (e/o, 2010), Germany (Grafit, 2007) Cel: Turkish (Yapi Kredi, 2011), France (Presses de la Cité, 2010), Italian (e/o, In Den Tex’s cynical tech universe, being shot dead, after which the boys 2010), Germany (Grafit, 2009) a young woman goes in search of her have to try and hide from the powerful Wachtwoord: Germany (Grafit, 2011) identity. Is she a remote-controlled higher-ups that their handler was cyborg, or does she have an autono- working for. mous existence and past? When Djenna regains consciousness, it turns out she has no memory of her An exhausted man on his way home past whatsoever. She and Luc set out in spots a beautiful young woman lying search of her identity. She discovers she unconscious, covered in vomit and is proficient in a martial art form that urine, in a dark alley between two allows her to kill an opponent with a buildings. He figures she’s probably had single blow – and that she enjoys doing too much to drink or taken the wrong it. So what is she – a sexy call girl or a pills. Luc doesn’t have much faith in the cool-blooded, violent murderer? emergency medical services and decides Den Tex crafts this premise into a to take Djenna home. He undresses her, gripping page-turner, with the various puts her in the shower and then to bed. players searching for each other and Luc earns a living as a scammer. He acts especially for Djenna and control over Charles den Tex as an intermediary in real-estate trans- her brain cells. (1952) is the Netherlands’ leading actions, charging a cash fee and then It’s a skilful depiction of the potential thriller writer. His work has won all the major prizes in crime fiction and vanishing without a trace, using false harmful consequences of technological ‘The main thing that strikes you is has been translated into several identities. knowledge – a world in which one’s the pleasure with which he spins languages. It turns out that Djenna has been the identity and one’s past can be bought his web. You see it, for example, in Photo: Wim van de Hulst victim of two street urchins, Sem and and sold and where people can be trans- the unparalleled way that he gives Rafik, who were supposed to steal her formed into remote-controlled fighting each character their own idiolect cellphone. They slipped her a pill so machines. [...] Worlds collide, but the distinct that she wouldn’t be able to remember anything. But when they meet with their voices make each character handler, Berry, to give him the phone credible.’ and get paid, things go awry. He refuses de Volkskrant to pay them the full amount before getting the PIN to unlock the device, ‘Den Tex once again proves that he but the boys are reluctant to give out the can rightly be called the Michael PIN until they’ve got their money. This Crichton of the Low Countries.’ mutual distrust culminates in Berry Hebban

20 THRILLER NEWDUTCHFICTION SPRING 2020 21 Publishing details In Holland Suburbia (2020) Guido van Driel 176 pages In Holland Suburbia 10,050 words Rights Concerto Books Hansje Joustra, Dick van Dijck The Virgin Mary hovers over a residential [email protected] neighborhood, but she’s not there to protect [email protected] Translated titles the people Toen we van de Duitsers verloren: Germany (Avant-Verlag, 2016) Gasten: France (L’Agrume, 2014) Strange things are afoot in Guido Guido van Driel van Driel’s graphic novel, In Holland (1962) is a history graduate and self-taught artist. His first comic, Vis aan de wand (Fish Suburbia. The backdrop is a typical new on the Wall), was published in 1994, promptly development in the Dutch suburbs, winning awards. He received a great deal of complete with family homes, tidy front attention from the press for his book De fijn-­ yards and garages. A Beatles-esque ­proever – Een raamvertelling (The Connoisseur band rehearses inside one of those – A Frame Story), about saxophone repairman Nico, and his fondness for prostitutes. His garages, but things soon take a turn for choice of subjects for his subsequent books the worse for them. One of the band was also unconventional: the 1974 World Cup ‘An exciting and intriguing story.’ ‘If there were a Nobel Prize for members is found dead in the bushes; final, which was so traumatic for the Nether- Het Parool comics, In Holland Suburbia another is hit by a piece of metal that lands, in Toen wij van de Duitsers ver­loren would definitely be a contender. falls from the sky. UFOs are flying over- (When We Lost to the Germans), or the life of De Poort comic bookstore, an asylum seeker in the provinces in Om Ghent, head, and the Virgin Mary is hovering mekaar in Dokkum. Van Driel has created his up there too, as a silent witness to all own film version of this graphic novel with the the mayhem. title of The Resurrection of a Bastard, which was selected as the opening film of the 42nd Guido van Driel paints his stories onto International Film Festival in Rotterdam in black paper with acrylics, which makes 2013. He also works as an illustrator for a variety of newspapers and magazines. you feel like you’re inside a movie the- atre, watching the action unfold. That’s no coincidence, because Van Driel is also a filmmaker with several feature films to his name. His latest, Bloody Photo: Lennert Hillege Marie, got rave reviews in the US. Multi- talented Van Driel uses his own graphic novels as storyboards for his movies, with the influence of directors such as Tarantino and David Lynch leaving a clear mark on the dialogue and events. Into this mix, Van Driel adds his fascina- tion with unidentified flying objects – he feels people should dare to believe in miracles. In Holland Suburbia is cur- rently being adapted into a TV series.

22 GRAPHIC NOVEL NEWDUTCHFICTION SPRING 2020 23 Recent Dutch novels that have been acquired by publishing houses from many different countries. TITLES Marieke Lucas Rijneveld Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer The Discomfort of Evening Grand Hotel Europa

Intense, poetic debut about the daughter in a God-fearing Writer pays homage to lost love and a dying Europe family coming to terms with the loss of her brother

Original title imprinted on my mind forever. 250,000 copies sold ‘Pfeijffer’s prose is funny, nasty, De avond is ongemak I can’t remember the last sharp, and at once self-con- time there has been so much Rights scious and absolutely light on 40,000 copies sold in-house excitement about a Jolijn Spooren its feet. I’m so pleased to be [email protected] Rights debut novel – and we can’t wait able to publish his biggest and Hayo Deinum for others to experience it.’ Rights sold most important statement to [email protected] Ella Griffiths editor at Bulgaria (Colibri), Czech Republic date here in the New World: Faber & Faber (Host), Croatia (V.B.Z), Finland the Great European Novel Rights sold (Gummerus), France (Presses de indeed!’ Arabic World (Al Arabi), Spain ‘The novel not only convinces la Cité), Germany (Piper), Israel Jeremy Davies, editor at (Temas de Hoy), France (Buchet the reader through the lively (Modan), Italy (Nutrimenti), Farrar, Straus and Giroux Chastel), Germany (Suhrkamp), Macedonia (Antolog), Norway Italy (Nutrimenti), Korea (Gimm- portrayed characters, but also Dutch edition by (Gyldendal), Portugal (Porto Young), UK & Commonwealth through a spirited, dense De Arbeiderspers, 2018 Editora), Spain (Acantilado), ‘A great satire concerning every- (Faber & Faber), USA (Graywolf narrative. The rural metaphors UK (Fourth Estate), USA (Farrar, thing from the destructive Press) and the language coming from Straus and Giroux) force of mass tourism to the the mouth of ten-year-old Jas, sellout of European culture. ‘The Discomfort of Evening are even more impressive.’ Pfeijffer captures the Zeitgeist is something special. Rijneveld Neue Rhein Zeitung and serves it up irresistibly.’ has created a world of lan- NRC Handelsblad guage unlike any other: her wild, striking imagery in all its horror and beauty will be

English edition by Faber & Faber English edition by Buchet Chastel edition by French US edition by Graywolf Press Press Graywolf US edition by Italian edition by Nutrimenti Nutrimenti Italian edition by Scheduled for March 19, 2020 19, March Scheduled for 2020 September Scheduled for Scheduled for April 2020 Scheduled for German edition by Suhrkamp German edition by Translated by Michele Hutchison by Translated Michele Hutchison by Translated Beuningen (2019) Helga van by Translated Musili (2019) Stefano by Translated Daniel Cunin by Translated SUCCESSFUL

24 NEWDUTCHFICTION SPRING 2020 25 This is a selection of recently published translations from the Dutch. For more information please go to our online database of translations: RECENT en.vertalingendatabase.nl

Rodaan Al Galidi Gerbrand Bakker Marjolijn van Heemstra Herman Koch Gerard Reve Two Blankets, Three Pear Trees Blossom White And His Name is Easy Living [Sjeot ha-erew] Sheets Translated into French Translated into Italian Translated into German Translated into Hebrew Translated into English by Françoise Antoine for by Laura Pignatti for by Herbert Post and by Ran HaCohen for by Jonathan Reeder for Grasset, 2020 Rizzoli, 2019 Christiane Kuby for Am Oved, 2019 World Editions LLC, 2020 Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2019

Hendrik Groen Arnon Grunberg Herman Koch Eva Meijer Tommy Wieringa Live and Let Live Birthmarks The Ditch Bird Cottage The blessed Rita Translated into German Translated into Hungarian Translated into English Translated into French Translated into English by Wibke Kuhn for Piper, by Szabolcs Wekerle for by Sam Garrett for Hogarth, by Emmanuelle Tardif for by Sam Garrett for Scribe, 2019 Gondolat, 2019 2019 Presses de la Cité, 2020 2020 TRANSLATIONS

26 NEWDUTCHFICTION SPRING 2020 27 Tiziano Perez, Victor Schiferli Translation Joost Pollman, Victor Schiferli Jos Morree FineBooks would like to beincluded 28 Please contact usifyou New Dutch Fiction is Barbara denOuden, Dick Broer, Barbara denOuden, Editors Philip Stroomberg Design Printing Margaret Hart Emma Rault Dries Muusand Jeroen Vullings Some texts inthisbrochure were Sonja van ’t Hof, MarliesHoff, on ourmailinglist. distributed to international editors andpublishers. based onreviews by Judith Eiselin, Onno Blom, Dick Broer, Contributions Cover photo

1018 VR Amsterdam1018 VR Visiting address: Nieuwe Prinsengracht 89 NL Postbus / Nederlands Letterenfonds t +31(0)20520 [email protected] www.letterenfonds.nl

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CONTACT ‘Koch commands his metier with an effortless superiority.’ Herman Koch Finnish Days 4 ‘Irresistibly funny and astute.’ Stephan Enter Pastoral 6 ‘Oek de Jong has once again written an instant classic, the kind that you’re almost surprised is still being written.’ Oek de Jong Black Barn 8

‘Reading Grunberg remains ‘A confronting and moving a tremendously exciting portrait whose merit goes experience.’ beyond just the artistic Arnon Grunberg quality of the production.’ Occupied Territories 10 Romana Vrede The Noble Autist 12

‘23 Seconds sounds like a thriller, but it’s much more than that.’ Kees van Beijnum 23 Seconds 14 ‘A lively portrait of a 17th- century businesswoman, and a fantastic portrait of the era.’ ‘A female Bridge on the Anneloes Timmerije Maria’s Men 16 River Kwai.’ Henriette Roosenburg The Walls Came Tumbling Down 18

‘Den Tex once again proves that he can rightly be called the Michael Crichton of the Low Countries.’ ‘If there were a Nobel Prize Charles den Tex A Woman Lost 20 for comics, In Holland Suburbia would definitely be a contender.’ Guido van Driel In Holland Suburbia 22