Annejet van der Zijl’s first book, Jagtlust, was published in 1998. It was followed by the widely praised biography of the popular Dutch children’s writer Annie M.G. Schmidt, Anna (2002), which sold very well and was nominated for a Golden Owl Award. 2004 saw the publication of Sonny Boy, which also became a best-seller. Sonny Boy has meanwhile been sold to six countries.
‘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…
