Dola de Jong – The Field 272 pages, 76,000 words, published in 2015 Rights sold to Germany (Kunstmann), Sweden (Nilsson), Norway (Aschehoug), Denmark (Turbine), Latvia (Jumava), Egypt (Al Kotob Khan) and Czech Republic (Pistorius & Olsanská) Featured in the Ten Books from Holland brochure from the Dutch Foundation for Literature Full English translation available After the international success of Ida Simons, Cossee Publishers presents another wonderful rediscovery of Dutch literature. The Dutch couple, Aart and Lies, flees the Netherlands just before the outbreak of the Second World War. On their way South they take in several children who lost their parents during their flight. They end up in Tangier. On a piece of barren ground they try to survive, while the Arabs watch them with pity. The family lives in poverty and they won’t get any help from the consul, because they are not officially refugees, seeing that they left the country before the war started. The wife of the consul occasionally comes by to bring them clothes. The future does not look bright for them: the children are feeling homesick and the field produces too little. When Aart gets arrested because of a misunderstanding, eighteen-year- old Hans takes matters into his own hands. However, he forgets Tangier is full of Nazi spies and takes great risks. The Field shows the disruptive effect of war on the lives of refugees. ‘The Field is still magnificent. It is an illustrative and delicate sketch. A harsh reality written in a light tone. Hopefully this rediscovery will be a success and will be followed by more reissues of her novels.’ – Trouw ‘The beautiful reprint, with the original cover, of Dola de Jong’s most famous and most impressive novel will hopefully makes her better known. This book leaves you flabbergasted and it almost physically hurts. An unambiguously allegation against the faith of children in wartime.’ – Dagblad van het Noorden★★★★★ ‘Dola de Jong deserves to be rediscovered. The novel is deeply moving. De Jong draws a breathtaking image of a time that is not in the least of the past when it comes to the inadequate treatment of refugees. Another reason why she deserves to be rediscovered.’ – de Volkskrant★★★★ ‘De Jong has a lot to offer: atmospheric images of Africa, exciting entanglements, distressing episodes, political backgrounds, conflicting worldviews and many cynical asides.’ – NRC Handelsblad★★★★ Dorothea Rosalie de Jong (Arnhem, 1911 – Laguna Woods/California 2003) wrote children’s books, novels, and short stories. She decided to flee the Netherlands in 1940 with the tension of war increasing. Together with her husband she reached Tangiers and successfully made the passage to America. She wrote The Field which was an instant success and received the Edgar Allen Poe Award for her thriller The Whirligig of Time (1964). Cossee Publishers, Kerkstraat 361, 1017 HW Amsterdam, the Netherlands | For more information, please contact Stella Rieck: [email protected] | To support Dutch literature beyond our borders, translation grants of up to 100% can be obtained through The Dutch Foundation For Literature. Visit www.letterenfonds.nl/en/grants for more information. .