Albert Alberts (1911-1995) made his debut in 1952 with the short-story collection De eilanden (The Islands). Other well- known titles include De vergaderzaal (The Conference Room, 1974) and De honden jagen niet meer (The Dogs No Longer Hunt, 1979). In 1996 he was awarded the P.C. Hooft Prize, the…
J.M.A. Biesheuvel (b. 1939) wrote his debut, the short-story collection In de bovenkooi (In the Upper Berth), in 1972, and it immediately established his reputation. After that, he published a large number of successful story collections and novellas. In 2007 he was awarded the prestigious P.C.…
Milo van Bokkum (b. 1994) works as an economics editor at the daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad. He studied at University College in Utrecht and St. Petersburg University in Russia, and obtained a master’s degree in Journalism and Media at the University of Amsterdam. Previously, he has done…
Menno ter Braak (1902-1940) was a Dutch critic whose shrewd intellect and challenging of preciousness in art earned him the title of the ‘conscience of Dutch literature’. He was the Netherlands’ most important writer, essayist and culture critic during the Interbellum period.…
Martin Michael Driessen (b. 1954) is a director of plays and operas, a translator and a writer. He made his debut in 1999 with the novel Gars, which was followed in 2012 by Vader van God (Father of God) and in 2013 by Een ware held (A True Hero), all of them acclaimed by the press and nominated for…
Stephan Enter (b. 1968) debuted in 1999 with his collection of short stories Winterhanden (Chilblained Hands). His first novel, Lichtjaren (Light Years), published in 2004, was nominated for the Libris Literature Prize. His third book, Spel (Game; 2007), demonstrated that he was already one of the…
Yolanda Entius (b. 1961) studied history and worked in the theatre for many years as an actress and director. She debuted in 2005 with the novel Rakelings (Narrowly), which was awarded the Selexyz Debut Award. Her novel Het kabinet van de familie Staal (The Cabinet of the Staal Family, 2011) was…
Carl Friedman (1952-2020) worked as a newspaper journalist. She made her debut in 1991 with the novella Tralievader (Nightfather), which was hailed as a small masterpiece by readers and critics in the Netherlands, Germany and the United States. Next came the novel Twee koffers vol (Two Bagfuls…
Willem Frederik Hermans (1921-1995) is one of the greatest post-war Dutch authors. Before devoting his life to writing, Hermans taught Physical Geography at the University of Groningen for many years. He had already started writing and publishing in magazines at a young age. His polemic and…
Otto de Kat is the pseudonym of retired publisher Jan Geurt Gaarlandt (b. 1946). He published his first novel, Man in de verte (The Figure in the Distance), in 1998, followed in 2004 by De inscheper (Man on the Move) and in 2008 by Julia. Each of these novels is set in the 1930s and 1940s and each…
It is the summer of 1978. With the world at their feet, Nola, Doris and Gaby head off on holiday together: three 17-year-old girls in search of a sun-drenched paradise. André, a devil-may-care character they bump into on the way to the campsite, is more than willing to be their guide. On the banks…
Biologist and writer Midas Dekkers once said that he felt Anton Koolhaas was entitled to the Nobel Prize for Biology, since ‘he alone penetrated to the core of what biology is all about’, namely the question: What is it like to be an animal? In the famous story Mr Tip is the Fattest Sir…
Bern, June 1941. Dutch diplomat Oscar Verschuur finds himself in neutral Switzerland. His family is spread across Europe, his wife Kate in London and their daughter Emma living in Berlin with her husband Carl, a ‘good’ German who works at the ministry of foreign affairs. The novel alternates…
‘He was in a quandary right to the end,’ writes Lousje Voskuil-Haspers in the foreword to Inside the Skin, ‘because of the intimate nature of the book and his not wanting to hurt anyone.’ The author, who died last year, had misgivings about publication and left the final decision to his…
Willem Frederik Hermans was an adolescent in Amsterdam during the Second World War, a period that made an indelible impression on him, compounded by his older sister and cousin committing suicide soon after the German invasion in 1940. Hermans often chooses the war as backdrop for his novels, since…
Albert Alberts was over forty when his stories, later collected as The Islands, were first published. His debut was extraordinary in that it held back none of its promise. It was perfect, composed in just the right tone and in the ideal form.
Carl Friedman hates always being expected to say something about the Jewish experience in interviews. ‘It’s scarcely a motivating force for me.’ She prefers, a propos of her latest collection of stories, to observe that she always writes about strong women. ‘I can’t imagine writing about…
The story of Rob’s life is told in spare prose. Not for him a predictable existence in bourgeois Holland; he heads out into the world, in search of action and adventure. But he walks into the trap of historical events that he cannot hope to influence.
Sander Kollaard’s novels are astonishingly serene. His often run-of-the-mill characters yearn for beauty while being fully aware of the ephemeral nature of life. His style reached its apogee in A Dog’s Day (2019), which earned him the Libris Prize. In this new novel, with great sensitivity he…
An approximately forty year old man who’s checked himself into a psychiatric clinic is discharged again after five days. Not because he’s not disturbed but because he was able to fairly clearly put his problems down on paper for the medical superintendent. In the latter’s personal notes (with…
