Small Sacred Things
Who determines your path in life? God, your mother or you?
Small Sacred Things is Annemieke Dannenberg’s first novel. Judith, the main character, is in her final year at school and has to make choices that contradict everything she’s grown up with. Should she do teacher training locally, as is expected of her, or go to the conservatory in Amsterdam, to follow her true vocation?
Profound and universal issues are explored in this noteworthy poetic coming-of-age debut. The mother-daughter relationship and breaking with the faith one’s been raised in.
Judith, who’s preparing for her school-leaving exams, has grown up in a strict religious environment. She lives with her single mother in a flat owned by the church, and the two often ask themselves the question ‘What would Jesus do?’. In their world it’s customary to follow God’s plan, which often channels women into teacher training – but Judith wants to study at the conservatory.
A spark is lit in Judith when she ventures to the local snack bar on a Sunday. There she meets Dorian, a girl with dyed hair and a leather jacket: she is the very opposite of Judith. Judith wrestles with herself in the run-up to the audition at the conservatory: is this what God wants of her? But the question what she herself wants is becoming increasingly important.
In the end, Judith is not accepted at the conservatory, yet her resolve to break free grows. The final chord of this sensitive book is both strong and moving. Judith plays a psalm on her cello and decides it’s her last. She takes Dorian’s hand in hers and together they leave the church.
Annemieke Dannenberg (b. 1993) is a writer and spiritual counsellor in eldercare. She studied theology at Utrecht University, followed by a training course in spiritual counselling at Radboud University, focusing on secularisation in the context of Dutch Protestantism. Dannenberg has published short stories and poems in publications including De Revisor and Hard//Hoofd. In her work, she explores what lies at the nexus between absurdity, meaning, belief and truth.