Oek de Jong has been awarded the Golden Owl Prize 2013, which is the most important literary prize in Flanders. The prize consists of 25,000 euros and a work of art by Philip Aguirre. A panel of experts named De Jong’s novel Pier and Ocean (Atlas Contact publishers) the best Dutch literary work of the past year.
The jury praised this monumental book as ‘a novel that stimulates all senses, written just like an old master paints’. According to the jury, Oek de Jong manages to evoke a time past through ‘meticulous descriptions of the observations of a sensitive child, without lapsing into nostalgia and without ever loosing the synopsis. It is a story that takes its time, a slow story that breathes silence and that sometimes steals your breath away.’
The prize of the panel of readers went to Tommy Wieringa for his novel These Are the Names (De Bezige Bij publishers). Both titles were selected for our current 10 Books from Holland brochure.
More information:
- Oek de Jong in our Authors and translators database
- Tommy Wieringa in our Authors and translators database
- website Oek de Jong
- website Golden Owl Prize (Dutch)
