Renate Dorrestein (1954 - 2018) has been universally praised for the force of her imagination, her sharp psychological insight, her suspenseful plots and her ironic sense of humour. Her books have been nominated for the AKO Literature Prize, the Libris Literature Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and translated into fifteen languages. Her international breakthrough came in 1998 with A Heart of Stone, published by Viking.
(Contact, 1996, 237 pages)
The belligerent motto of this novel is taken from Virginia Woolf: ‘This is an insignificant book, because it’s about the feelings of women in the living room.’ Agnes Stam is the protagonist of this enjoyable book, which begins with a suggestive chapter on the experiences and thoughts of a modern improvised family which goes on holiday to the Scottish island of Mull. Christine (10) and Thomas (4) try sulkily to run away from their mother and her boyfriend.
(Contact, 2001, 256 pages)
On tour in America to promote the successful translation of her novel, Een hart van steen (A Heart of Stone), Renate Dorrestein sold the rights to Zonder genade (No Mercy) to the Viking publishers for Euro 225,000. Never before had such a high price been paid for a Dutch book; it was even more remarkable because Zonder genade had yet to be published. The novel is now out in both Dutch and English and it has to be said that Dorrestein has more than lived up to such great expectations. Zonder genade is an exciting, compelling psychological thriller in which the author deals with the theme of senseless violence.
(Podium, 2016, 270 pages)
In Seven Sorts of Hunger everything revolves around eating. Or in fact around not eating, since Renate Dorrestein’s latest novel is set in a luxury slimming retreat, the William Banting Institute, where overweight rich men – CEOs, film producers, property developers – come to rid themselves of their excess kilos. Nadine and Derek Ravendorp, owners of the institute, prefer to call it a ‘change of lifestyle’.
