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Margriet de Moor Mélodie d’amour Rarely has anyone written so lucidly about love Rotterdam in the 1950s; the collapse of a great love. A young woman called Marina comes to live with Atie and Gustaaf and family. Gustaaf ’s adultery leaves Marina pregnant and eventually leads to a divorce. Gustaaf starts a new family with Marina, and Atie’s immense love for him turns into pitiful hatred. Luuk, one of Atie’s sons with Gustaaf, watches the whole situation destroy his parents’ marriage. He says nothing, and the adulterers never bring up the subject either. In part two we follow Luuk, who now has children of his own, as well as a wife and a mistress – the same situation as his father was in all those years ago. We see him through the eyes of his obsessive and pushy mistress Cindy. He is the subject of her fickle and tempestuous moods. She storms into his life without the slightest inhibition and sometimes at the most inconvenient moments.
World rights: De Bezige Bij • English sample and full German translation available • Shortlisted for the Opzij Literature Prize 2014, longlisted for the Libris Literature Prize 2014 • Rights sold: Hanser Verlag (Germany) Fiction 336 pages 45