(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.

(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.