Dutch Fiction Spring 2024

This new edition of New Dutch Fiction presents a selection of books recently published in the Netherlands, books that have been included for their artistic and commercial success.
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Who we are

The Dutch Foundation For Literature has the task of supporting writers and translators, and of promoting Dutch literature abroad. It invests in the quality and diversity of literature through grants for writers, translators, publishers and festivals, and contributes to the production and distribution of Dutch and Frisian literature at home and abroad.

Best of Non-Fiction

Annejet van der Zijl

Sonny Boy

‘Sonny Boy’, the title of an Al Jolson song from 1928, was the nickname given to Waldemar Nods and Rika van der Lans’ little boy. 1928 was the year their impossible love began, a love they kept alive against all the odds. The contrast could not have been greater: Waldemar was a seriousminded black student from Paramaribo in Surinam, not yet twenty, son of a gold prospector and grandson of a woman who had yet to free herself from the chains of slavery; Rika was the daughter of a Catholic potato wholesaler, warm-hearted and obstinate, a married mother of four, approaching forty when they met. She was his landlady. When he moved in she had only just left her husband and was penniless, living with her children in a tiny rented apartment in The Hague.

Jurriën Hamer

Waarom schurken pech hebben en helden geluk

For centuries philosophers have debated the existence of free will. Biologists and neurologists have declared it an illusion for decades. The evidence against free will grows with every year: we are a product of our genes, our history and our surroundings. And yet this myth seems to hold more influence than ever – in our criminal justice system, our economy and our quest for happiness.

Iki Freud

Men and Mothers

A book for and about sons but also for the mothers of those sons. Where Sigmund Freud once described the way men interacted with their fathers, Iki Freud turns her gaze to their mothers. Sons can also develop a symbiotic bond with their female parent. This leads to identification with the mother instead of the father and is often correlated with either homosexuality, or sexual perversion – which is problematic when it becomes compulsive and exclusive.

Maxim Februari

Give us a break

In liberal democracies, human behaviour is regulated by the justice system. This way of establishing and maintaining norms is now being replaced with data-driven technologies in the rush to meet simultaneous crises. Written with erudition and wit, 'Give Us a Break', by judicial philosopher Maxim Februari, examines how this digitalization is rapidly transforming democracy, basic rights and the rule of law in practice.

Translation Database

Our Translation Database provides information on more than 21,000 translated Dutch works, including both subsidized and non-subsidized literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, children’s and YA). The database offers access to the large collection of foreign translations which form the core of the Dutch Foundation for Literature’s library.
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