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Göteborg 2027

Marja Pruis has been writing about the expectations men and women have of each other and of life since her debut novel Bloem (Flower). She has been called the chronicler of contemporary womanhood; she explores these themes further in her novels and essays. Pruis works at De Groene Amsterdammer weekly magazine as a literary editor and columnist, writing essays on topics as wide-ranging as humour, shyness and greed. Her non-fiction books have earned numerous awards. Homework was named one of the best books of the year by de Volkskrant, Trouw and NRC.

Homework

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Marja Pruis

Clara tries to build a relationship with Rose and help her. Full of good intentions, she desperately tries to be on an equal footing with Rose. Every word she says or texts to her is supposed to reinforce this equality. When Rose asks Clara to hide her wages in a safe place in the home rather than paying them out every week, Clara is all too happy to oblige.Right before Christmas, the money disappears, and Clara catches herself suspecting Rose. She discusses this suspicion, which is at odds with her desire to be nonjudgmental, at length with her husband, children, friends and acquaintances. We become privy to her thoughts, which are a testament to her privileged position. Whereas Clara has the time and leisure to reflect on notions of guilt, at first the reader has no sense of Rose’s private life and circumstances. It’s not until the final chapter that Rose gets to speak. In an affecting monologue, she confronts Clara and the reader with a genuine call for help.Pruis’ books are thoughtful and nuanced – a refreshing approach in these times, when people are quick to take a stance and tend to stay inside their own social bubbles. She leaves room for the readers to make up their own minds about Clara – is she naïve or admirably open-minded?Homework is a confrontational novel about intimate happiness and domestic betrayal. About being the boss and not wanting to be. With great precision, Marja Pruis exposes the confusion that wealthy westerners get caught up in with their good intentions.Publishing details Huiswerk (2023) 216 pages 46,000 words 10,000 copies sold Sample translation availablePublisher Nijgh &amp; Van Ditmar Martijn Prins <a href="mailto:m.prins@singeluitgeverijen.nl">m.prins@singeluitgeverijen.nl</a>

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She exposes the complexity of the zeitgeist and the hypocrisy of a cultural elite which pretends there is no distinction between the underclass and the upper class and painstakingly tries to keep up the appearance of equality.

It’s pleasant to be inside Clara's head (...) A novel full of linguistic ingenuity (…) The storyline is the glue that holds together the swirling thoughts on the zeitgeist, on ageing, femininity, literature and shame, all the tangents that betray the puckish essayist in Pruis

Adriaan van Dis

A sublime novel, not only about “love and lies” but also about decline and death.

Van Dis creates a monument to a love that existed outside the confines of the ordinary.

That complexity, captured by Van Dis in so few and such simple words, is what makes this novel so good.

A powerful, poetic novel written with a palpable urgency. A declaration of love to a temperamental woman who was unable to choose.

Book

A poetic novel about a secret romance that lasted nearly forty years

Hayo Deinum

For almost forty years, Adriaan van Dis kept the love of his life a secret. Now, following her death, he revives her in this poetic novel about an extraordinary three-way relationship. They meet in the 80s on the set of a TV and literature programme – she, Eefje, is the director; he is the presenter. They fall in love, but Eefje stays with ‘the Other’, with a capital O, as the narrator insists on calling him.

Everything for the Trip

Teddy Tops

Tops combines a compact writing style with fluid prose, distilling an incredible amount of life into 157 pages.

What if women in post-war Europe had been free to choose their own path? Teddy Tops’s heartfelt novel explores that possibility.

Ernaux, and then some.

A moving and inventive debut novel about the search for missing origins

Martijn Prins

Egelskop

The anonymous first-person narrator in Teddy Tops’s debut novel is the sole survivor of a car crash that kills her parents, leaving her – just four years old – with only a handful of memories that she can’t be sure are true. Each time she replays them in her mind, they appear in a different setting or feature different cast members. How can she know where she really comes from?

Arrowhead

Gabriëlle Terpstra

A debut to remember – an instant classic. Reminiscent of Tove Ditlevsen's celebrated Copenhagen Trilogy: a literary adventure through a young woman's life that tests your pain threshold.

Terpstra maintains just the right distance to give an almost unfeeling description of Geller's experiences, allowing the reader to form their own opinion.

A subtle yet profound portrayal of a young woman's life — remarkably lucid, objective and, ultimately, hopeful.

This debut novel by a young Frisian female author is raw, poignant and shamelessly honest – but above all, full of hope

Hille Faber

Geller

Gabriëlle Terpstra is a rising star in Frisian literature. In a humorous, compassionate and crisp style, she tells a story about being born to addicts, childhood poverty, self-medication and sex.

Joke van Vliet

At its core, the book is driven by the struggles of a woman with two irreconcilable forces: those of mother and artist.

An impressive work of literature by an author who should be more widely read.

A staggering story.

Impressive debut novel about a woman’s reflection on her tattered life

Niets is echt gebeurd

Daan is blind. She has barricaded herself in her flat, crawling through the filth and the dark, waiting for the police to come. She has done something terrible — something she cannot undo — and she knows it is only a matter of time. We know this from the very first page. What we don't know is how she got here.

Nothing Really Happened

More Fiction

A novel about white privilege and the complex relationship between a woman and her Black domestic worker

Huiswerk

Clara Feij is a writer working for an intellectual magazine. She jokingly calls herself Mrs Dalloway, lives with her husband in a nice house in a gentrified neighbourhood and leaves the housework to a parade of domestic staff, all refugees from their own countries. When Rose comes to her home to work, everything changes.

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