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He has won numerous major awards and his work has been widely translated, with several of his books being adapted for the stage. The Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of The Book of Every­thing has enjoyed enormous success in Australia and around the world. His work for adults includes Hoe een klein rotgodje God vermoordde (How A Small Little God Murdered God, 2006) and Hoe word ik gelukkig? (How To Be Happy, 2009). In 2012 Kuijer won the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for his children’s writing and in 2014 he was shortlisted for the AKO Literature Prize for The Bible for Unbelievers.

Guus Kuijer

It’s not easy to adequately describe Kuijer’s way of working, but this short story, told in distinctive, supremely simple sentences and everyday language is typical of his work. What he wants to tell children is clearly there on the paper, and yet it’s not there.In Kuijer’s work there’s always something left to guess at, but it’s never so difficult that a child can’t manage to work it out. Kuijer is a master of little ironies. And for good reason. Because children, as he adamantly insisted all his life, are very good at thinking for themselves. They don’t need adults to do it for them.

Guus Kuijer is a monument in Dutch-language children’s literature. His five books about Madelief can already be seen as classics.

His realistic stories deal with modern-day problems in a light, sometimes almost satirical manner that always sets the reader thinking. His characters are never holier-than-thou superheroes, but real people. They have problems, but are able to cope with them. Madelief herself, for example, is the child of a single mother. But she’s certainly not to be pitied! It’s difficult to pinpoint the best book in the series. Many people feel that the high point is the recently filmed Krassen in het tafelblad (Scratches on the Tabletop), in which Madelief turns out to understand the problems of her dead grandmother better than the adults in her family and, in a touching way, restores her grandfather’s lust for life.But the funny Op je kop in de prullenbak (On Your Head in the Rubbish Bin), about Mr. Cowboy the teacher, who would rather be something else, and Grote mensen, daar kan je beter soep van koken (Big People, You’re Better Off Making Them into Soup), about a little boy who lives as a child squatter on an abandoned boat, are just as good. What is special is the way these books grow with the readers. You can read one of them every year. In spite of the absence of the mobile phone, these are books that could almost have been written today.By Pjotr van Lenteren

There are few writers who are able to describe so vividly what it’s like to be a child – and with such skilful spontaneity.

Book

Asset

Assets

Het grote boek van Madelief

In one of the first stories in the first Madelief book, 'Met de poppen gooien' (Throwing Dolls), Madelief and Roos talk about the toilet. The rather prim Roos is embarrassed by the subject, whilst tomboy Madelief tries to kid her that she and her mother don’t even have a toilet. But then they ring Madelief’s doorbell and hear her mother call out ‘wait a moment!’, followed by the roar of a flushing loo. End of story.

The Madelief book

In this collection (2009), we follow Polleke’s everyday adventures over the course of five books, with her COMPLICATED DAD (CD), her mum, who’s doing it with her teacher, and her Moroccan boyfriend, Mimoun. In this complex multicultural society, the rebellious, witty Polleke, who wants to follow in her father’s footsteps as a poet, manages to stand firm. She has the support and understanding of her grandparents, and also finds comfort in the expressiveness of language. Her candid poems might be short, but they help Polleke to fathom her own feelings.

Polleke

In all his books, Guus Kuijer shows complete solidarity with children’s hearts and souls. He understands better than anyone else that children just want to be happy. But in a world of conflicts both large and small, that’s not always easy, as Polleke, one of the best-known characters in Dutch children’s literature, knows only too well.

Kuijer is not on a critical crusade. Rather, he is keen to bridge the cultural gulf between the modern reader and the Middle East of the distant past, a world with perplexingly unfamiliar customs. Bypassing the likes of Moses and Abra­ham, he tells the story from the perspec­tive of outsiders and underdogs – an inspired choice that creates plenty of room for emotion, doubt and disbelief.He has no qualms about skipping the dull bits. His Bible reads as an absorbing work of fiction, packed with enthralling scenes and lively dialogue – a unique achievement that earned him a well-de­served place on the shortlist for the AKO Literature Prize.One of the most striking and entertain­ing features of Kuijer’s series is its pro­foundly human take on these astounding and improbable tales. When Adam asks his maker ‘Are you really alone? Are there no other gods but you?’ God replies snippely: ‘I find that question rather inappropriate.’ By bringing an irreverent dose of realism to the inconceivable, Kuijer playfully illustrates the bizarre nature of the Bible.The fourth volume in the series turns to King David, just as his power is beginning to wane and his kingdom is coming under threat. It moves on to the reign of his promiscuous son Solomon: ‘God granted Solomon the gift of wisdom at which point Solomon said: “Thank you Lord God, I’ll help myself to around one thousand women.”’ It’s bound to end in tears.

Kuijer is a master storyteller and his Bible sweeps you along from beginning to end. (…) He has been quoted as saying he needs one more book in order to round off his 'Bible for Unbelievers' series. I hope with all my heart he ends up needing ten.

A key question about a Bible for Unbelievers is, how does God fare? Kuijer portrays Him as eccentric and capricious. When David conducts a census, God sends a plague upon the people of Israel, only to relent halfway: ‘God felt sorry! Under­stand? He had listened to seventy thou­sand men, women and children wailing, watched them die horribly while loving each of them. That hurt.’God as fickle and fallible who brings death and destruction on a nation and then has second thoughts? Welcome to the wonderful world of Guus Kuijer.

With his marvellous sense of humour, his lightness oftouch, his erudition and his irascible nature, Kuijer has enriched the Book of Samuel […] giving it new depth and dispensing with the cloak of piety.

The three volumes of Guus Kuijer’s 'Bible for Unbelievers' represent a completely original literary undertaking which knows no equal.

Fiction

De Bijbel voor ongelovigen

Any attempt to bring the Bible to a fresh set of readers is a bold undertaking. Guus Kuijer, one of Holland’s best-loved authors for children and adults, steps effortlessly into the light with his own extraordinary retelling, written for a modern-day readership of unbelievers. Three volumes have been published to date, with part four following in autumn 2015.

The Bible for Unbelievers

Grandma was an independent woman, with an original frame of mind. She needed to spread her wings, but lacked the courage to defy the restrictive spirit of the times. She gave up her dreams to settle down with her husband. This turned her into an embittered, intolerant wife and mother, with a duster in her hand from dawn ‘til dusk. In the garden house Grandad once built especially for her, Grandma left a sad, but enlightening vestige of her existence: a barred prison window has been scratched into the table top, with a head behind.Perhaps the finest of all Kuijer’s works, a few years ago this book was successfully turned into an impressive children’s film. The author is brilliant at writing childish dialogue and, as always, succeeds in describing people and situations to a tee with a minimum of words and dry humour. It is a sign of true genius in youth literature to be able to write at a simple level about the real issues that every human life revolves around: the relationships between loved ones and between parents and children. Kuijer presents his characters warts and all. He does not judge, but gently encourages Daisy, the child who, observing with amazement the mess that grownups make, continues to ask questions. Even when she is well aware the questions are awkward.

A book that deals with subjects that have not yet been dealt with, and that is reason enough for it to have been written.

Between the lines of his children’s book Guus Kuijer weaves a complete family saga. In a sparkling, unpretentious children’s story he relates the story of a marriage in the same subtle fashion.

A jewel of a children’s book.

Children's books

Krassen in het tafelblad

When Daisy’s Grandma dies, the girl realises to her surprise that she barely knew her and that her mother does not seem particularly upset. Daisy goes to stay with her kind, sensible Grandad, to cheer him up a bit in his loneliness. There begins the search for the woman who was her grandmother. Like a cunning, dogged detective, bit by bit she pieces together what has never been talked about in the family and why.

Scratches on the Tabletop

More Guus Kuijer

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