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When she made her debut as a poet in 1991 with the collection Soldatenliederen (Soldiers’ Songs), for which she was awarded the C. Buddingh Prize, she was working as a psychoanalyst. Since then she has devoted much of her time to writing. With her first two novels, Het meesterstuk (The Masterpiece, 1995) and Het geheim (The Secret, 1997), psychological novels in which classical music is central, Enquist quickly reached a broad readership. In 2002 she wrote the Book Week Gift, De ijsdragers (The Ice Carriers), and in 2005 she published the major historical novel De thuiskomst (The Homecoming), which focuses on James Cook’s wife Elizabeth Batts. For the French translation of this novel, she received the Prix du Livre Corderie Royale-Hermione. ‘Enquist understands emotion’ is how one critic has described the appeal of her work.Her writing brings together the fields of psychology and classical music in a particularly exhilarating way, which is partly what has won her such a wide audience, both in the Netherlands and beyond.

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Anna Enquist

That’s the heartrending dilemma faced by Alice Augustus, the main character in Demolition, who is about to turn forty. If she still wants to have a child, it’s now or never. She obsessively tries to get pregnant, paying one fruitless visit to a fertility clinic after another. Starting a family is less of a priority for her husband, a tax lawyer, calmly content with his life as it is. In the same period, Alice gets a prestigious commission; she is asked to compose an anniversary piece for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s a dream come true – Alice never would have thought that she, a woman, would receive such an honour. She can’t believe her luck. Will she be able to pull it off?She works like a maniac and turns to her hero, Joseph Haydn, for inspiration. She has always considered the great composer, who never had any children of his own, to be a kindred spirit. She rereads his biography, listens to his compositions and puts her all into creating a wholly innovative piece of music: strings, brass, a slow crescendo, the pared-down, innocent sound of a recorder.The reader empathises with Alice – you listen to her internal monologues, in which she voices the many questions she’s struggling to resolve; you understand her insecurity and her anger, the legacy of a loveless childhood and an early unwanted pregnancy.Enquist sweeps the reader, rhythmically, insistently, towards the unexpected climax. Following in the footsteps of such great writers as Simone de Beauvoir, Hella S. Haasse and Virginia Woolf, Demolition is a contemporary take on a time-old subject – compelling and convincing.

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Enquist understands the struggle; she knows longing and lack.

'Demolition' is a nuanced psychological portrait of a woman.

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Sloop

Female artists have struggled for centuries to reconcile motherhood with their work. What then, should a young, ambitious female composer – the only woman in a field dominated by men – do with her desire to have children? Is it a good idea to embark on motherhood when your career is finally taking off and your compositions are being performed the world over?

Demolition

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