Non-fiction preview
Ana van Es, The Baghdad-Berlin Express
Bezige Bij * Reportage/history * 256 pages * May 2024 * Sample by David McKay * Edited Dutch ms available
What does a hundred-year-old European railway line tell us about today's Arab world?
We imagine the Middle East as a region full of war and chaos But there’s also a train running through it, on a European railway line more than a century old that was built by Germans, British and French in search of oil, antiquities and virgin land How does the colonial past work its way into today's Iraq and Syria? In The Baghdad-Berlin Express, former Middle East correspondent Ana van Es travels along this track, from the Persian Gulf through the former IS caliphate, with death never far away. But at Baghdad Central Station they also dare to dream: about returning tourists and a high-speed connection to Europe. For this book the author travelled to Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
Bart Van Loo, In the Footsteps of the Burgundians (original title: Stoute schoenen) Bezige Bij * history/travelogue* ca 800 pages, ill * September 2024 * Designed sample chapters available
Van Loo brings our distant past back to life by literally touching the Middle Ages
Bart Van Loo’s upcoming book is a fascinating journey in time to the Late Middle Ages by the author of The Burgundians, of which over 375,000 copies were sold across Europe The author goes on a quest for ancient ruins and castles, artefacts and works of art, travel routes and battle fields -from Bruges to Brussels, from Ghent to Gouda, from Namur to Nijmegen Then he moves on to France, Switzerland and of course Burgundy itself, where it all began, to demonstrate that the ducal epos is also an elemental part of European history In his acclaimed narrative style, Van Loo shows how these parts of Europe evolved during that era, from disintegration to a form of political, cultural and economic unity.
Non-fiction
Fiction
Anaïs van Ertvelde, Handicap
Bezige Bij *Non-fiction * 252 pages * February 2024 * Sample by Anna Asbury How to belong in a world in which you do not naturally belong?
Anaïs Van Ertvelde was born with a short right forearm A matter of course for her, she thought, but other people seemed to question it At a certain point she discovered that there was much more behind that disability, in both personal and social terms. Van Ertvelde examines 'disability' as a political condition. She examins what the world tells us about disability and reveals what disability can tell us about the world How disability affects our view of art, sex, work, intimacy, burnout, citizenship, resistance and who we are ourselvesthough we rarely realise it
Lisa Weeda, Dance, Dance, Revolution
Bezige Bij * Rights sold: Kanon Verlag (Germany) * Fiction, 238 pages * February 2024 * Sample by Michele Hutchison
Imagine you could end a war with your dance
Lisa Weeda's novel Aleksandra caused a sensation, now she presents her new book Dance, Dance, Revolution - a bold, novel experiment that calls on us to keep moving for peace Because dance knows no language, no borders It is the night in which evil is exorcised Baba Yara lifts the pale moon out of the blackness with ease Then she begins to dance Baba Yara will save us! With her dance she can bring people back to life The bad dead, all those who have left us too soon Who wouldn't want that? This experiment challenges us to keep moving for peace.
Jeroen Theunissen, One Week
Bezige Bij *Fiction * 240 pages * May 2024
25 August, standing at Liz's deathbed are her son and his girlfriend, her ex-lover, an old friend and an old girlfriend And Marthe It is the hottest summer since records began Liz, 62, has chosen euthanasia But after her death, Liz gets up, and begins the morning of what will be her last day. Next comes her penultimate day. Then the day before And the day before that A week of friends and old acquaintances visit This is not a novel about death, but about life, about the lust for life, about the impossibility of death as long as you breathe.
Peter Middendorp, Ada’s Side
Bezige Bij * Fiction * 171 pages * January 2024
Since the fatal event, Ada has been consumed by the question of whether she is partly to blame for her husband being a rapist, a murderer Could she have prevented it? Or is she just as much a victim? Should she have broken her silence earlier? But how can you keep living when something like this comes out? Through confrontational questions, Ada now carefully tells her story, from her husband Tille's arrest to the present day, as Tille is soon to be released 'Middendorp is a superior stylist who can penetrate deeply into the psychology of his characters with few words and many silences.’**** Knack
Commercial fiction
Kasper
Rik Van Puymbroeck, The Will to Grieve Shortlisted fo the Confituur Booksellers Prize Bezige Bij *Autofiction *208 pages * 2023
On the last night of October 1984, a boy watches his best friend crash. It is his last night as a child, from now on he has to be brave and look ahead As the years go by, his days are partly defined by the dead. They are in his writing, in being and in loving, they are in all his doubts, stumbles and struggles They travel with him to distant lands They are at home where he lives. ‘Van Puymbroeck wields a masterful language, its beauty is comforting ’ - de lage landen
van Beek, Scapegoat
Cargo* thriller * 366 pages * May 2024 * Sample by Nancy Forest-Flier What if you are the killer?
Jonas van der Valk wakes up in an unfamiliar hotel room and cannot remember how he got there Confused, he tries to make his way back home, but soon finds that the world has changed beyond comprehension In his old neighborhood pub, Jonas is told that it is actually fifteen years later than he thinks Apparently, he has been in prison all this time, having committed a terrible murder, but to his mind, only one day has passed With the help of his sister, Jonas discovers that he has been released early Why can't he remember anything? And what exactly happened that night, fifteen years ago, when his seemingly perfect life changed forever in an explosion of violence?
Fiction
Jeroen Olyslaegers, Will Now on Netflix worldwide; The Times Historical Fiction Book of the Year; An Observer Book of the Year, A Financial Times Translated Book of the Year; Bezige Bij* Rights sold Dumont (Germany), Odeon (Czech Republic), Stock (France), Pushkin Press (World English), Seix Barrel (Spain), Edizioni E/O (Italy), Helikon (Hungary), Ara Llibres (Catalan), Ombra (Albanian) * Novel * 333 pages * 2016 * 85,000 copies sold
It is 1941 and Antwerp is in the grip of the Nazi occupation. Young policeman Wilfried Wils has no intention of being a hero – but war has a way of catching up with people. When his best friend draws him into the growing resistance movement, and an SS commander tries to force him into collaborating, Wilfried’s loyalties become horribly, fatally torn
Tommy Wieringa, Nirwana
Bezige Bij * Rights sold: Hanser (Germany), Pauza (Poland), Iperborea (Italy), Libri (Hungary) * Nominated for the Libris Literature Prize * Novel * 480 pages * September 2023 * Sample by Sam Garrett * 85,000 copies sold
Artist Hugo Adema is a scion of an illustrious family that has left its mark on modernity for decades His grandfather, Willem Adema, established his offshore empire after having played a dubious role in WWII. Who is this man whom some revere as a hero while others regard as an opportunist? When Hugo’s former governess passes away, the long-lost diaries of Willem Adema turn up in her house, casting a shocking light on his war years Nirvana is an epic about a family hat spent generations intent on conquering the earth, even when it becomes apparent that fire is a good servant but a bad master ‘A tour de force ’ - de Morgen
Commercial fiction
Non-fiction
Cargo *John Kuipers, Mussert’s Shadow (on 1941), The Göring Hoax (on 1942), The Man in Westerbork (on 1943, publication June 2024); books on 1944 and 1945 in preparation * Cargo * Golden Noose Award 2023 for Mussert’s Shadow Rights sold: Open Borders Press (World English) English sample and synopses available
Historical thrillers set in the Netherlands during the occupation Mussert’s Shadow: He is unconventional, impatient and exceedingly tall He is also scared of dogs, a bad shot and equipped with a good sense of humour Chief inspector Charlie Swieninck is the head of the Special Crimes Bureau, and must deal with the German occupiers, who slowly but surely are asserting their authority within the The Hague police The Göring Hoax: On a chilly morning in August 1941 a corpse is found floating in the lake right next to the parliament’s building It’s the body of the Brussels art expert Joseph Foulon, who had been hired by the adjacent Mauritshuis museum to examine a recently surfaced work by the Dutch master Frans Hals.
Meredith Greer, Reflection Time
Bezige Bij * 207 pages * September 2023
* English sample * Features in Dutch Non-Fiction from the Foundation for Dutch Literature A meditation on grief, abortion and time
When author Meredith Greer has an abortion in complete isolation, she starts writing in the midst of her grief and anger. While looking for the words to describe what has happened, she becomes fascinated by the magical, alienating and destructive properties of being stuck in a state of in-betweenness. She explores different liminalities – such as invisibility, the portrayal of grief and the inevitability of forgetfulness – and interweaves her studies with fragments of poetry, prose, and raw, unvarnished recollections The result is an ingenious book in which Greer tries to expand the ways she can use language when words fall short
