For the Most Beautiful
‘Come home./Take off your coat./Hang it up.//Look around and see: this is where your history begins.’ It’s no coincidence that the final poem from his collection Hug Me Tight also opens this book.
In this masterful non-fiction title, Van Lieshout leads you in a playful, educational walk and talk with a curious child, looking at pieces of forgotten past and people, including ordinary individuals like his brother who died young, with the message that ‘history belongs to us’.
In an original ‘relay story’ form, supported by beautiful images, he writes fluidly about women in trousers, black men in white wigs and civil activists such as Rosa Parks and Ida Wells. He demonstrates convincingly: there is not one history – we are all part of it. And whether someone is a hero or a villain depends on the perspective.
Lieshout charts his own path through history on the basis of his artistic and personal background. But, he says, we need to keep talking to one another. It’s only by sharing our stories that we can come to understand the world of today: ‘After all, everything that happens today already started yesterday.’
Age: 8+
Playful form
Factual and nuanced
Groundbreaking
“‘With 'Voor de mooiste', Ted van Lieshout has written one of his best books to date.’”
