Marco Kunst (b. 1966) – a philosopher by background – proved with his futuristic Gewist (2004) and fantastic Kroonsz (2014) that he does not shy away from telling big stories that reach through time and space. He refuses to be pinned down to any single genre or style. In 2013, he surprised his readers with Vlieg!, an everyday story about a dreamy little boy, while 2020 saw the publication of Het verlangen van de prins, a tale of adventure at sea and the search for happiness.
(Lemniscaat, 2004, 375 pages)
Science and technology remain the most important engines of progress. Perhaps technological progress could eventually produce a society like the one described in Marco Kunst’s debut novel Wiped: the ultimate welfare state where poverty, suffering, desire, and hunger for knowledge are completely unknown, in which humanity has achieved a permanent state of emotional bliss, driven and guided by a single computer. A fantasy or a terrifying vision of the world to come? The obvious question is whether a society so lacking in emotion would still be ‘human’. Would it ever be right for mankind to hand over its power and freedom to a single machine? Wiped is Marco Kunst’s response to…
(Querido Kind, 2008, 303 pages)
Marco Kunst is one of those rare and remarkable authors who take the genre of fantasy seriously. He demonstrated this in his award-winning science-fiction novel Gewist (Wiped, 2004) and has proved it once again with Isa’s droom, a cleverly constructed fantasy, rip-roaring adventure and sophisticated Bildungsroman, all in one book. Marco Kunst takes an exceptionally original approach and succeeds in the tricky task of creating an authentic fantasy world.
(Lemniscaat, 2013, 151 pages)
Marius’ big brother and his short-tempered father always call him Mouse. They still see him as a little boy with an over-active imagination. His granddad’s the only one who calls him Marius and who takes all his questions and worries seriously. Marius is about to become a teenager, but he still can’t quite let go of his childhood.
(Lemniscaat, 2014, 342 pages)
It’s one of the oldest themes in literature: how to relate to death and to our own mortality. Writing another meaningful, let alone original, book on the subject is no easy task. However, Marco Kunst’s latest young-adult novel proves that it most certainly can be done.
(Gottmer, 2020, 240 pages)
A three-master called The Prince’s Desire has been sailing the world’s oceans for three hundred years. The crew is searching for the Indonesian island of Prince Adi. Because he is the only one who can break the curse.
(Gottmer, 2022, 190 pages)
Two adolescents who experiment with an unused cartridge from an old service rifle that belonged to one of their grandfathers (a Vietnam veteran) is a conceivable story. But it is the fatal consequences and the philosophical implications of this grim event that make Trigger such an unusually refreshing and daring YA novel.
