Robert Anker

Robert Anker (1946-2017) was a writer of poetry, novels and criticism. He debuted in 1977 as a poet in the literary magazine De Revisor. For his prose debut, the novel De thuiskomst van kapitein Rob (Captain Rob’s Homecoming, 1992), he was awarded the F. Bordewijk Prize, while his collected poetry, In het vertrek (In the Room) was nominated for the VSB Poetry Prize in 1997. The novel Een soort Engeland (A Kind of England, 2001), earned him the prestigious Libris Literature Prize.
Anker further published the novels Vrouwenzand (Women’s Sand, 1998), Hajar en Daan (Hajar and Daan, 2004), Nieuw-Lelievelt (2007), Oorlogshond (2011) and Schuim (2014).

Kind of England

(Querido, 2001, 268 pages)

Over the last few years, the poet, Robert Anker, has turned into a true novelist with his short stories and novellas. Right from the start he was ambitious. His debut, a novel running to almost 600 pages, described the turbulent life of Paul Masereeuw, a bent lawyer – and in the process painted an exuberant portrait of the baby-boom generation. On the face of it, Anker’s second novel, Een soort Engeland (A Kind of England), demonstrates a number of parallels with his debut.

Hajar and Daan

(Querido, 2004, 288 pages)

Hajar and Daan, a contemporary version of West Side Story written by Robert Anker, opens with ‘The first time Daan Hollander, a history teacher at DataCare Secondary School in Amsterdam, fucked Hajar Nait Sibaha, a junior honors student, she kept her headscarf on – at his request.’ The drama is introduced with such immediacy: forbidden love if ever there was one. Teacher / student, white / black, non- religious / Muslim, and it’s as if the fucking is about the annexation of a piece of land.

Author

Robert Anker

Kind of England

Hajar and Daan

Translations