Adriaan van Dis

Adriaan van Dis, born in 1946 in Bergen, the Netherlands, made his debut with the novella Nathan Sid, the story of a boy growing up between two cultures: the paradise of colonial Indonesia and the drabness of the Netherlands after the Second World War. Van Dis is interested in cultural clashes, and this fascination permeates his entire oeuvre, from Nathan Sid to his most successful novel, Indische duinen (My Father’s War, 1994). A confrontation between two different cultures is also more than apparent in his travel books, such as In Africa (1991), which deals with the war in Mozambique. In his novel Familieziek (Repatriated, 2002) Van Dis recounts the humorous and moving story of a boy who grows up in a family repatriated to the Netherlands from Indonesia, and who remains an outsider despite his endearing attempts to integrate. De wandelaar (The Walker, 2007) is his last novel to date. Van Dis currently lives in Paris.

Family Fray

Adriaan van Dis’s Indonesian family background has played a major role in many of his novels, including Indische duinen (My Father’s War), which has been translated into many languages. With Familieziek, he has produced a minor masterpiece that is already being hailed as a ‘classic’ in the Dutch press. As the subtitle ‘a novel in scenes’ indicates, Familieziek consists of short episodes from the life of a family repatriated from Indonesia to the Netherlands.

My Father’s War

The autobiographical nature of Adriaan van Dis’s work can be partly deduced from the fact that the surname of the main character in his debut novella, Nathan Sid, is an anagram of his own. Like his character Nathan Sid, Adriaan van Dis had a father who came from the former Dutch East Indies and lived in a house full of repatriated people in the dunes near the Dutch town of Bergen aan Zee.

The Walker

Mr Mulder seems to all appearances to be a upstanding gentleman, gliding through life, impeccably dressed, aloof to the hustle and bustle of the world around him. Because of a sizeable inheritance he can afford to idle away his time, and so he leaves Holland for Paris, where he leads an anonymous, solitary existence. One night he witnesses a dramatic fire in a building occupied by illegal immigrants and transients. People throw themselves out of windows in blind panic, as the crowd below looks on helplessly.

Tik Kop

After a forty year absence, Mr Mulder – a character from Van Dis’ previous novel, an introvert full of good intentions, none of which seem appreciated – returns to the country that is part of his history: South Africa. In the early seventies, he and his friend Donald were involved in opposing the Apartheid regime. It was a time in which there was room for ideals, for romance. He fell in love with the beautiful activist Catherine, whom he never saw again after she was sent to prison.

Translated books

Afrikaans
Palmwyn, 2001
(Familieziek) (Family Fray)
Tikkop, 2011 (Tik Kop)
Bulgarian
[Skitnikăt], 2009 (The Walker)
Chinese
[(De wandelaar)] (The Walker)
[Yushang yizhi gou], 2011 (The Walker)
Danish
Huset i klitterne, 1996 (My Father’s War)
Vandreren, 2009 (The Walker)
Tik, 2012 (Tik Kop)
English
Three leopards in Arras, 1984
Stolen languages, 1999
Repatriated, 2008 (Family Fray)
My father’s war, 1996 (My Father’s War)
My father’s war, 2004 (My Father’s War)
My father’s war, 2005 (My Father’s War)
(Tikkop) (Tik Kop)
French
Sur la route de la soie, 1990
La terre promise, 1993
En Afrique, 1993
Vin de palme, 2000
Années tropicales, 2000
Au pays du mensongne, 2006
Fichue famille, 2003 (Family Fray)
Les dunes coloniales, 1999 (My Father’s War)
Le promeneur, 2008 (The Walker)
(Tikkop) (Tik Kop)
German
Nathan Sid, 1988
Ein Barbar in China: eine Reise durch Zentralasien, 1993
Nathan Sid, 1996
Palmwein, oder Die Liebe zu Afrika, 2000
Doppelliebe, 2004
Unter den Dächern aus Zink, 2011
Indische Dünen, 1997 (My Father’s War)
Indische Dünen, 2000 (My Father’s War)
Ein feiner Herr und ein armer Hund, 2009 (The Walker)
Ein feiner Herr und ein armer Hund, 2012 (The Walker)
Hebrew
[Ha-metajel], 2010 (The Walker)
Italian
Le dune delle Indie, 1996 (My Father’s War)
Il vagabondo, 2009 (The Walker)
Tradimento, 2012 (Tik Kop)
Norwegian
Indiske sanddyner, 1995 (My Father’s War)
Portuguese
Em Africa (extracto), 1997
Em Africa, 1998
A terra prometida, 2003
Romanian
(De wandelaar) (The Walker)
Serbo-Croatian
Pacov iz Arasa, 1994
U Africi, 1997
Palmino vino, 1998
Indijske dine, 2000 (My Father’s War)
Slovenian
Zaverovan v družino, 2008 (Family Fray)
Spanish
Amor ambiguo, 2002
Las dunas de Indonesia, 1999 (My Father’s War)
Las guerras de mi padre, 1999 (My Father’s War)
Swedish
En barbar i Kina: en resa genom Centralasien, 1989
Indiska sanddyner, 1997 (My Father’s War)