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In 2005 she was awarded the Dif/BGN prize for her second novel Normale dagen (Ordinary Days, 2005). Superduif (Superpigeon, 2010), Dorst (Craving, 2012), and Roxy (2014) were all shortlisted for the Libris Literature Prize. In 2014 she was awarded the Frans Kellendonk prize for her body of work. Gerritsen is a leading playwright and writes a popular weekly column in the VPRO TV guide.

Esther Gerritsen

In the middle of the night two policemen appear at the door of 27-year-old Roxy to inform her that her husband, a successful TV producer, has been killed. He has had an accident together with his mistress; both were found in the car naked. Roxy, who at the age of seventeen fled from the home of her oafish father and alcoholic mother into the arms of her husband, knows that life has now become serious: ‘She always knew that she’d skipped something, that she’d taken a shortcut to adulthood.’Bringing up her daughter Louise is no longer a game. She suddenly has to deal with people who come into the house: Jane, her husband’s assistant, and Feike, her daughter’s babysitter. Worse still, she has to operate the terribly complicated espresso machine. Roxy is perceptive, but doesn’t know how to cope, not even with her parents, of whom she is permanently ashamed. Sex with the undertaker only brings temporary relief, so she decides to go on holiday with her daughter, the babysitter and the assistant. What follows is a road novel in which Roxy tries to make friends with Feike and Jane but just as easily swaps their company for anonymous sex with young men.The holiday makes it clear that Roxy finds it difficult – if not impossible – to relate to other people. One night the isolation and frustration become too much. She wants to avenge herself, not on human beings, who are ‘dead, drunk, absent or innocent’. So she seeks a suitable enemy and finds it in a herd of sheep.

Once again Esther Gerritsen displays her gift for striking sentences and dialogue that teeters on the thin line between normality and alienation, between entertaining kookiness and harrowing absurdism.

There are sentences carved in stone: ‘Roxy is looking for new words, but her youth has already become a book that she is retelling.’ With that, Gerritsen succeeds in catching the haunting and dark precision of someone like Samuel Beckett. If this won’t lead to a shortlist nomination for one of the biggest prizes, I’ll eat my hat.

Book

Fiction

Esther Gerritsen has written a novel about a confused woman who does something gruesome, but her style allows readers to sympathise with this tragicomic anti-hero. Few writers are as good at dialogue and absurd situations as Gerritsen, who delves into themes such as mourning, growing up and parent­hood.

Roxy

“Her brother rang her just before his leg was to be amputated. She had not spoken with him for a year.” The phone call from her brother Marcus knocks the emotion- ally repressed career woman Olivia for a loop. Even though she blames her brother for having done such a poor job of manag- ing his diabetes, the news causes her to bolt from an important shareholders meeting.Olivia leads a tightly-controlled life, and as financial director of Kyvon Serviezen, she is trying to keep the company from bankruptcy. She has two sons with her husband Gerard, who shares her “dislike of sentimentality and complaining. Too much fretting was best cured with a game of tennis. She often played tennis.” She decides to have the inconsolable Marcus come live with them while he recuperates.But her brother’s arrival turns Olivia’s placid little life upside down. Her sons have a great time with their uncle Marcus, and are sorry their mother never joins in the fun. Her husband suddenly announces their marriage is in trouble, and her company appears to be unsalvageable. After meeting Marcus, the company founder, Mr Kyvon, thinks Marcus can be a big help in putting the loss of the firm into perspective.Her brother’s leg may have been cut off, but it’s Olivia who feels cut off from both her family and her work. It begins to dawn on her that everyone else seems to get along with her brother except her. As the story ends, watching her husband and sons fishing alongside Marcus and Mr Kyvon, she realizes she’s watching a great happiness, one that does not include her. Fortunately, all she has to do is walk over and join them.Brother is a masterful story about the power of family ties, loss, and letting go.

The amputation-story genre has gained a fine new example.

Lively, amusing, and riveting— a typical “Gerritsen”, with a great many scintillating sentences and sharp observations.

Broer

Esther Gerritsen is known for leavening her psychological dramas with wit and realistic dialogue. 'Brother' is vintage Gerritsen, a short, accessible, gripping novella, ending on a positive note. It was the 2016 Dutch Book Week Gift selection with a printing of close to 650,000 copies.

Brother

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