The Song of Stork and Dromedary
This masterful novel spans two centuries in a mosaic of styles and genres. Its central figure is the uncompromising Eliza May, modeled after Emily Brontë.
In early 19th-century Yorkshire, she and her sisters Millicent and Helen lead a reclusive existence marred by poverty and disease. They find fulfilment in their love of reading and writing books. When, after dozens of rejections, the novels by Millicent and Eliza May are finally published (using male pseudonyms), Millicent’s novel becomes a huge success, whereas Eliza May’s novel is labeled ‘sick’ and ‘immoral’. In eleven chapters, each of which could just as well be a standalone novella, Eliza May’s life story is told by people who knew her personally, biographers centuries later, a mysterious notebook and characters whose lives become serendipitously intertwined with Eliza’s.
Winner of five major literary awards in the Netherlands, including the Libris Literature Prize and the Boekenbon Literature Prize, as well as being named "Best Book of the Century" by newspaper NRC.
Translated into sixteen languages: Arabic, Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Croatian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Slovenian, Spanish, Czech, and Swedish.
More Fiction
Sugar Animal
A glimpse inside the mind of a serial killer
Lord M.
Bestselling historical novel about Queen Victoria's first prime minister, and the scandalous wife he never stopped loving
The Light Between Our Fingers
The first novel for adults by one of the Netherlands' most celebrated children's authors
Johnnie Walker
An unflinching self-portrait of addiction, writing and the mother who shaped her
Anjet Daanje (b. 1965) writes novels, short stories and screenplays. Her breakthrough novel 'De herinnerde soldaat' (The Remembered Soldier) won the 2020 F. Bordewijk Prize and the Best Book of Groningen Prize and was longlisted for the 2020 Libris Literature Prize and the International Booker Prize 2026.