Wytske Versteeg

Wytske Versteeg (b. 1983) debuted as a novelist in 2012 with Weightless, which won the Women’s Debut Prize, was nominated for the Opzij Literature Prize and longlisted for the AKO Prize. In 2008, her first non-fiction book This Is Not a Homeless Person was published and subsequently nominated for the Jan Hanlo Essay Prize. In 2014, her second novel Boy was awarded the BNG Literature Prize and translated into Danish, German, English, Italian, Croatian and Turkish. Two more novels followed — Quarantine in 2015 and Grime in 2017.

Boy

(Prometheus, 2013, 189 pages)

Boy grows up as the only child of his adoptive parents. Chubby and dark-skinned, he is ruthlessly bullied at school, but at home he says nothing about what he is going through, only that he has pains in his stomach. After a class outing to the beach, he does not return. His lifeless body is later discovered washed up on the sand.

Vanishing Point

On Violence and Vulnerability

(Querido, 2020, 226 pages)

‘As a writer, I go in search of uncomfortable stories, things that don’t want to be told.’ In this case, the story that defies telling is Versteeg’s own. More than just a story, it is a philosophical quest — how to live after violent acts have been committed against the body? How to find a language for this experience? In this naked, mesmerising account, Versteeg explores the many facets of pain and the challenges of recovery.

Author

Wytske Versteeg

Boy

Vanishing Point

On Violence and Vulnerability

Translations