Martin Michael Driessen

Martin Michael Driessen (b. 1954) is a director of plays and operas, a translator and a writer. He made his debut in 1999 with the novel Gars, which was followed in 2012 by Vader van God (Father of God) and in 2013 by Een ware held (A True Hero), all of them acclaimed by the press and nominated for literary prizes. His work has been translated into Italian, German and Hungarian. His voluminous novel Lizzie (2015) was written with the poet Liesbeth Lagemaat. Rivers won the ECI Literature Prize in 2016. The Pelican has been shortlisted for the prestigious Libris Literature Prize.

Rivers

(G.A. van Oorschot, 2016, 140 pages)

In the three novellas that make up this book, the main role is assigned to the flowing water of the river. Here the river is the last refuge for a stranded life, an opening onto new worlds, or the distributor of worldly goods, love and power. In all three, Driessen demonstrates his great narrative talent.

The Pelican

(G.A. van Oorschot, 2017, 200 pages)

Former opera and theatre director Martin Michael Driessen’s sixth book is a comedy of errors about two men inescapably connected by a web of blackmail. As in his prize-winning story collection Rivers, Driessen is a master of inspiring empathy for individuals who take their fate into their own hands, usually with tragic consequences.

My First Murder

(G.A. van Oorschot, 2018, 165 pages)

‘Death is stupid,’ thinks one of the characters in Martin Michael Driessen’s latest collection of short stories. He has survived a shipwreck, a Japanese POW camp and a shark attack, but now it seems that he will finally meet his end after taking a dive off his sailboat alone and realizing too late that he forgot to hang the swim ladder.

Author

Martin Michael Driessen

Rivers

The Pelican

My First Murder

Translations