The Forbidden Realm
In 'The Forbidden Realm', J. Slauerhoff draws on existing stories, mainly from the nineteenth century, about Luis Camões, a sixteenth-century Portuguese poet and seaman who wrote the famous epic 'Os Lusíados' in Macao in the late 1550s. Slauerhoff’s version is set in the twentieth century, with a ship’s radio operator as the main character. After a series of mishaps the radio operator lands at Macao. There he experiences some kind of hallucination that makes him identify with the Portuguese poet who lived three centuries earlier.
Original title
Het verboden rijk
Author
J. Slauerhoff
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His personal involvement and his unique style – sometimes clipped and ironic, at other times lyrical and visionary – give his books a place of their own in the history of the novel.
R.P. Meijer, Literature Of The Low Countries
Of the pre-war generation of writers, Slauerhoff’s imagination was not only the most vivid, it was also one which baulked at nothing.
Willem Frederik Hermans, NRC Handelsblad
In his prose he is great and irresistible.
Bert Schierbeek, De Groene Amsterdammer
J. Slauerhoff
The life of the ship’s doctor and poet Jan Jacob Slauerhoff (1898-1936) satisfies all the criteria for literary stardom. He was restless, adventurous, and intriguing, a tormented loner who suffered poor health and died young – a poète maudit in every way.