Building, Breaking
How far back do you have to go to find out where you're from?
In this multilayered novel, the author goes in search of his origins and uncovers his ancestors in the Netherlands, Egypt, England, France and Australia. The storylines span two hundred years and three continents, each revolving around the same decision: what you build, and what you must tear down.
Being the son of an Egyptian father and a Dutch mother, Ramy El-Dardiry, has always wondered what it means ‘to be from somewhere’. Searching his family past, he tells the story of Pieter Bogaers, the author's grandfather, who as minister of housing in the 1960s took on 'public enemy number one', the housing shortage, and who decades later would have grandchildren of Egyptian, Moluccan and Antillean descent.
Further back in time lies the life of another ancestor, eighteenth-century textile manufacturer Pierre Pollet, who fled the French Revolution and whose children made their fortune in the wool industry of Tilburg: a story of progress, overshadowed by religious guilt. Across the Channel, the Englishwoman Sarah Phillips is transported to Australia: a story of survival in captivity on the other side of the world. She, too, is part of the author's past.
A family full of builders and breaking points, and a narrator who discovers that his question about origins was answered long ago by those who came before him, just not in the way he expected. El-Dardiry writes in a refined style, giving each era and story its own register and idiom. The result is also a portrait of European history in all its diversity.
Ramy El-Dardiry (1985) is a researcher and writer. He studied physics at the University of Twente and has worked for the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy since 2022. His short stories have appeared in various literarry magazines and newspapers. His debut novel 'Tussen morgenzee en avondland' (Between Orient and Occident, 2023) won De Bronzen Uil for best Dutch-language debut, was shortlisted for the Hebban Debut Prize and longlisted for the Libris Literature Prize. 'Bouwen, breken' is his second novel.