Author

Tommy Wieringa

Tommy Wieringa (b. 1967) is the author of Alles over Tristan (Everything About Tristan, 2002) and Joe Speedboat (2005), his staggeringly successful breakthrough novel which went on to sell 300,000 copies. His collection of travel stories Ik was nooit in Isfahaan (I Never Went to Isfahan, 2006) was followed in 2007 by De dynamica van begeerte (The Dynamics of Desire), a meditation on the origins of desire and the modern world’s obsession with pornography. Wieringa’s work has been translated into languages as disparate as French, Hebrew and Korean. Dit zijn de namen (These Are the Names, 2012) earned him the Libris Literature Prize and De Inktaap young readers’ award. The Death Of Murat Idrissi, Sam Garrett’s translation of De dood van Murat Idrissi, 2017), has been longlisted for the 2019 Man Booker International Prize.

All about Tristan

All about Tristan

(De Bezige Bij, 2002, 160 pages)

Novels where the biographer plays the role of the hero could almost be said to be in a genre of their own. The reader looks over the biographer’s shoulder as he unravels the mysteries of his subject’s life, becoming entangled in it himself in the process. It’s an appealing form, done notably by Paul Auster in The Book of Illusions. Tommy Wieringa in All about Tristan makes the same attempt and succeeds.

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Joe Speedboat

Joe Speedboat

(De Bezige Bij, 2005, 316 pages)

With his wheelchair-bound spastic narrator, Fransje Hermans, who can only speak in unintelligible grunts, Tommy Wieringa has succeeded in writing a dazzling novel whose every page sparkles with imagination, it is a splendid literary achievement. The story is driven by Joe Speedboat, friend and classmate of the narrator and, of course, his enterprising counterpart.

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Caesarion

Caesarion

(De Bezige Bij, 2009, 366 pages)

The seed of Tommy Wieringa’s new novel, the hefty Caesarion, was planted even before the resounding success of its predecessor, Joe Speedboat. Several years ago Wieringa read a report about the child conceived by Cicciolina with Jeff Koons.

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These Are the Names

These Are the Names

(De Bezige Bij, 2012, 304 pages)

‘To discard one’s old soul, that frayed, worn thing, and get a new one in its place. Who wouldn’t want that?’ This is Pontus Beg speaking, the police commissioner of Michailopol, a drab city in the Russian steppes. He is a melancholy cynic, a philosopher who is all too aware of the meaninglessness of life, but when he comes into contact with a group of refugees, his life takes an unexpected turn.

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A Beautiful Young Woman

A Beautiful Young Woman

(De Bezige Bij, 2014, 94 pages)

One of the most important Dutch writers of the last decade took on the challenge of writing the novella that would form the centrepiece for the annual Book Week. The result is an exquisite tragedy fuelled by an age gap and irreconcilable differences, which has garnered five-star critical acclaim.

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The Blessed Rita

The Blessed Rita

(De Bezige Bij, 2017, 304 pages)

Paul Krüzen, the novel’s unlikely hero, is given a gift by his best friend Hedwiges: a medal of Saint Rita, the patron saint of lost causes. Like most of the men in this book, the two are solitary souls, misfits at odds with the modern world. In this majestic novel, Tommy Wieringa not only returns to the rural sensibilities of his barnstorming breakthrough Joe Speedboat but also unites a number of strands from his earlier work: the bonds of friendship, the loner’s battle with his surroundings, and the shadow cast by an absent mother.

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Translations

Website

http://www.tommywieringa.nl