This writer has been an Angry Young Man ever since his first book and, judging by his success, the public approves of this stance. His latest book, the first part of a trilogy, is called Autobiografie van iemand anders because, although the main character and narrator of these short sketches is none other than Herman Brusselmans of Ghent, he feels as if he’s no longer the person he used to be. He is now 37 and, as a result, he has left his depressions behind him and is suffering from midlife crises instead. The author is still in the grip of a comic despair. Nothing has changed except that he keeps on getting older and this makes his humour even blacker.

Brusselmans tells about his present bachelor existence without Gloria or Phoebe to stand by him, about soporific TV programmes he watches, his achievements as the drummer of a band without a name, and about the Antwerp Book Fair where he’s saddled with his so-called colleagues. He also experiences every writer’s dream: ‘to get bad reviews and sell well’. If it happens the other way around you’re a loser, if they’re both good it’s embarrassing, and if they’re both bad you’re a complete loser.

One of his remarkable adventures features the TV celebrity and sexologist Goedele Liekens, who tries to cure the writer of his alleged impotence by crawling under their table in a petit restaurant. Her well-intended efforts don’t exactly solve his problems but they are hilarious, like all the meaningless events in the life of this contrary sufferer at the hands of fate.