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 Netherlands. 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 Amsterdam 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), Germany (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), Italy, (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.