De Bezige Bij Foreign Rights Guide
FRANKFURT
Yes Man Peter Buwalda
The long-awaited finale of the literary success Otmar's Sons
Rights sold: Rowohlt (Germany), Actes Sud (France), several option publishers
Over 25 000 copies sold!
In Yes Man by Peter Buwalda (1971), we return to bastard son Ludwig Smit and Shell CEO Johan Tromp. The action plays out on Sakhalin Island, where the relationship between the two men becomes strained when Ludwig carves out a career as Tromp’s bag-carrier Together, they turn against the journalist Isabelle Orthel, who unwittingly puts their relationship to the test Characters and pasts subsequently collide, forming a dangerous web of suspicions and disappointment. In the biting cold of Siberia, on the coast of Los Angeles and eventually in deceptively domestic Leiden, The Netherlands, Yes Man reaps what was sown in Otmar’s Sons
Selected press quotes:
NOVEL 688 pages September 2025 Including synopsis Otmar's Sons
‘This writer can do anything: write virtuoso, sell nonsense, kill people or bring them back to life, he can even despise his own child with impunity’ - **** De Standaard
‘He has moved with the times, transcending the mainstream form of Otmar's Sons by allowing the grand, smooth narrative to erode. The result is a frayed book that leaves you bewildered, but one that is nonetheless complete and resolved.’ – **** NRC
‘The (very) long-awaited sequel to Otmar's Sons contains everything that made the first part so acclaimed: Yes Man is vicious, daring, and elegantly written.’ – de Volkskrant
Aline - Heleen Debruyne
Aline is angry. And she’s getting even angrier
A family that has just moved from a bigger city A house under renovation A young child who demands constant attention A mortgage that has to be paid off A relationship in which the burden of care is never quite fairly distributed Frustrations that are more often screamed than talked out
Then there are the neighbours, whose abusive relationship plays out on the street. And on top of that, a polyamorous love triangle. There’s a lot going on in Aline’s life – too much, in fact. And Aline is getting angry. Angrier and angrier. In her attempts to cope, she leans on feminism and her psychologist for support.
But will she ever learn to reflect on her own shortcomings?
Look at All That Light - Alara Adilow
Is staying together really possible when the person you love is also the one who hurts you the most?
Sagal is twenty-eight and, as a marketing professional, lives a life of luxury Her girlfriend Diana struggles with gender dysphoria and wants to know why she always seems to make the same bad choices When Sagal has an abortion without her knowledge, Diana is left feeling betrayed The night Diana leaves her, Sagal seeks out her Somali, drug-addicted mother for the first time in ten years Look at All That Light is about maintaining a relationship with people who seem to be constantly falling apart
‘The impressive debut novel by literary talent Alara Adilow is not neat or flawless: expect drugs, semen, and grotesque scenes. Look at All That Light is so romantic, raw, and realistically written that you can fully empathize with the identity struggles.’- de Volkskrant
From the author of Will (Netflix hit)
NOVEL
407 pages
November 2025
English sample by David Colmer
The Wonders - Jeroen Olyslaegers
A whirlwind journey through time from the perspective of an incredibly resilient woman
Rights sold: Editions Stock (France)
At the end of the nineteenth century, Amandine and her twin brother Ambrose grow up in a prominent Antwerp banking family, shackled by the obedience and convention forced on them by their parents Amandine is married off to a banker who hopes to make his fortune in the rubber industry, while Ambrose, with all the theatricality of a bohemian, is completely preoccupied with his own self-destruction Together, they seek escape and freedom in mysterious séances While the madness of the First World War plays out around them, Amandine tells the story of her resistance to a chaotic world that does not understand her.
Olyslaeger's novel Will (2016) was elected as The Times Historical Fiction Book of the Year, Financial Times Translated Fiction Book of the Year, and Observer Book of the Year
Child of the Earth - Anne Eekhout
‘Lucy Applewhite is a witch’. This is scratched on the door of the toilet cubicle at St. Elizabeth’s, a Catholic school for girls in New York City, 1966. And perhaps it is true.
Rights sold: many option publishers
There is something strange about thirteen-year-old Lucy Applewhite. A few years before, she found out she was conceived when her mother was raped by a stranger And ever since, Lucy has been afraid of growing up What if she becomes a bad person, just like her father? She clings desperately to her childhood, but life insists on pulling her in the opposite direction Not long after her thirteenth birthday, she experiences the destructive power of men for herself This event awakens unsuspected powers deep inside her, and she discovers she can change the lives of the people around her. But doesn’t that make her a bad person? Perhaps even a witch?
On Mary:
‘Bold hypnotic ’ - The New Yorker ‘Passionate, brooding, and alive ’ - CBS Sunday Morning
NOVEL
319 pages
October 2025
English sample by Laura Watkinson
NON-FICTION
Flemish Vistas - Erwin Mortier
A journey to the origins of Mortier’s writing, in light and shadow
264 pages September 2025
To his great astonishment, Erwin Mortier (1965) discovers one day that a distant ancestor of his, a certain Jozef Tessely, was the secretary of one of the first literary societies in Flanders, in 1864 Generations later, another Tessely, Mortier’s grandfather, walked past the Brussels Stock Exchange with his arm raised in the Hitler salute, in the name of that same Flanders
These revelations from his family history prompt Mortier to embark on a journey to the sources of his own writing, encompassing times full of light and those full of darkness He regards with compassion the early history of Flemish literature in the young Belgian nation, and listens with pity to the guilt and shame of the generations that have shaped and scarred him ‘I write because in writing I can speak and be silent at the same time. ’
‘Flemish Vistas is a rich, layered and infectious book. He undertakes a loving search for the sources of his writing, but also reflects critically on the myths and traumas that have shaped Flemish identity His own included As a writer, he cannot remain silent about this’ - de Volkskrant
What I Didn't Tell Her - Sigrid Bousset
In search for the untold. While not a novel, it reads just like one
This is the story of a writer’s turbulent life. Specifically, Ivo Michiels, a tireless innovator in literature, film, and art, but also a person deeply scarred by war, guilt, and fear. Sigrid Bousset (1969) knew him intimately from the age of twelve and delves deep into his life and work What hidden burden did he carry on his shoulders? What role did he really play in the Second World War? Who is his son, conceived in Germany in 1944? What about the woman who gave her life to him? How much did he conceal, yet still write about? Bousset exposes the intimate motivations of a man full of secrets In her search for the untold, she has found more than Ivo Michiels himself ever revealed
‘One day I will tell her everything I haven't told her! With all my love, for yesterday, today and tomorrow. Ivo, Le Barroux, summer 2011’
480 pages October 2025
Yugoslavia Johan de Boose
Yugoslavia began as a dream. A noble ideal to unite the Slavic peoples of the south. What followed was a convoluted tale: from kingdom to socialist republic, from tourist paradise to war zone In this captivating book, Johan de Boose (1962) travels through the former Yugoslavia, in search of what the country once was – and why it fell apart. By learning the languages and speaking with people from all corners of the region, he unravels a country that was at once unique and universal Yugoslavia became the broken mirror of Europe. And now, in a Europe that is increasingly beginning to resemble a continent divided into endless jagged pieces, the Yugoslav story is becoming relevant once more.
‘A thick and compelling work, part travelogue and part history, like a Geert Mak in the Balkans’ – VRT Radio
NON-FICTION
672 pages October 2025 English sample
‘If I am striving for anything with this book, apart from writing history in the form of a travelogue, it is to make a plea for humanity and compassion. No, it will not save lives or stop armies, but it will fuel the dream that it is worthwhile to strive for the safe return of as many lost travellers as possible, both vagrants and displaced persons, who have passed through torrential rains and seas of fire on their journey.’
Echoes of History - Sinan Çankaya
About who is allowed to speak and who is silenced, which of the dead we remember and which stories we bury ever deeper
NON-FICTION
287 pages April 2025
English sample by Jane Hedley-Prole
His family lives one month’s payslip away from poverty but a young Sinan Çankaya (1982) yearns for a different life, for freedom In reality, however, climbing the social ladder takes him further and further away from his origins, and causes his childhood friends and family to fade away Yet he cannot escape his past In the literary and academic world, he remains an outsider Then, when he investigates the links between antisemitism, Islamophobia and the Second World War, something breaks When he writes about the genocide of the Palestinians, he is met with silence Is he allowed to tell this story? Everything he had once believed in – rise out of poverty, learn the language, work hard – turns out to be deception Was this his destiny? Is this freedom?
Men Who Are Silent - Tomas Vanheste
Male Infertility
When Tomas Vanheste (1968) discovered he was unable to father children, he found the subject extremely difficult to talk about. But why did he find it so hard? How does society really perceive fertility, masculinity, and fatherhood? In Men Who Are Silent, Vanheste investigates the stigma surrounding male fertility issues and delves into possible causes and treatments Is a healthier lifestyle really one solution for poor sperm quality, and do endocrine disruptors actually play a role in the problem?
Through conversations with scientists, doctors, and writers, Vanheste explores male infertility in a candid and perceptive manner
NON-FICTION
208 pages May 2025
NON-FICTION
Top 10 Bestseller Non-Fiction
It Has Nothing To Do With Love - Ariane Hendriks & Ingrid Vledder
On recognizing and stopping coercive control
NON-FICTION
262 pages September 2025
Women are murdered all too often, and the killer is usually their (ex-)partner. When this is the case, the murder is almost always preceded by coercive control The perpetrators of coercive control go to extremes to keep their partners trapped in a relationship This usually starts subtle with love bombing, and later turns into isolation, manipulation, gaslighting, coercion and intimidation A woman who tries to leave a perpetrator is at risk of becoming the victim of physical violence, which sometimes ends in femicide. This book provides insight into what women experience during and after a relationship with a perpetrator and gives valuable advice to victims, their loved ones and professionals on how to recognize and deal with coercive control The authors (both family lawyers and former lawyer of the ex-partner of Wim Hof) are celebrated for their research and conclusions, and It Has Nothing To Do With Love entered the bestseller list on publication.
‘One woman killed every 10 minutes: the harrowing global reality of femicide’ – UN report, nov 2024
Golden Earring - Bart Chabot
The band behind the international hits ‘Radar Love’, ‘Twilight Zone’, and ‘When the Lady Smiles’
Golden Earring, founded in 1961, was once one of the world’s oldest rock bands The final line-up was active non-stop between 1970 and 2021 Bart Chabot’s (1954) love for the band began in his own city, The Hague ‘When I think about The Earring,’ he says, ‘I often remember how as a child I would walk to school past a wall in Theresiastraat where the words ‘golden earrings’ were scrawled in bold chalk paint ’ Bart could never have imagined that years later he would be able to follow the now world-famous band right into their dressing rooms and put any question he wanted to the four stars – Barry Hay, Rinus Gerritsen, George Kooymans, and Cesar Zuiderwijk.
NON-FICTION/ MUSIC
270 pages October 2025
SUCCESSFUL TITLES: FICTION
NOVEL
219 pages April 2025
Sample by Kristen Gehrman
Ludwig - Jana Antonissen
A bold novel about groundbreaking art at a time of discussions about transgressive behaviour
Five years after the dissolution of the controversial stage experiment led by cult director Ludwig von Sachsenheim, described in the media as ‘lewd trauma art’, Mira manages to face her own part in it. For the first time, she tells her story, far beyond shame. How did her joining Ludwig's enigmatic theatre company Neue Gesellschaft in Berlin affect her already strained relationship with her father? To what extent was she complicit? And does she feel sufficiently guilty about it?
‘Ludwig is back, and I had no clue I don’t even know if I should be happy, scared or just angry Ludwig is back, and the door I thought I had closed is being kicked open Ludwig’s shadow smothers me, warns me that the long tentacles of the past will not simply withdraw Ludwig is back, and I hesitate: how guilty do you have to be to remain silent? What is the difference between keeping something to myself and hiding it?’
The Unseen - Alicja Gescinska
‘The refugee is this, the refugee is that, the refugee is always something we do not want, he is never himself, a human being, he rarely gets a face.’
In 2019, Mona, a photographer, spends several weeks in Beirut to work on a new reportage On the job she meets Ruba, Juhaina and Palestinian Suhaila and they become friends When Suhaila takes Mona to the place where she was born - the refugee camp where her mother still lives - Mona realises how biased her views on refugees are In the sincere friendship that unfolds, Mona learns what binds them: a deep desire to live their own lives
‘Once we ’ re in the camp, you do as I say. If I say ‘stop taking photographs’, you stop immediately. When I say ‘walk on ’ , we walk on, immediately. If I’m still talking to someone, you wait for me. And you never stray more than a few metres from my side. Is that clear?’
NOVELLA 108 pages February 2025
Sample by Michele Hutchison
SUCCESSFUL TITLES: FICTION
Dius - Stefan Hertmans
‘The entire novel is written with tremendous mastery of the subject matter, with theme and form in perfect balance.’ - Trouw
Rights sold: Diogenes (Switzerland), Gallimard (France), ArtRage (Poland), Fraktura (Croatia)
NOVEL
304 pages October 2024
Full German and French translation; English sample by David McKay
When Dius rings his doorbell, Anton is surprised and irritated None of his students at the art college has ever intruded so unabashedly into his private life Or even offered him friendship and a place to write in an old village house in the midst of a rugged landscape Alternating between concentrated work and long walks, an almost oldfashioned bond of friendship develops between the two men, while their respective lives at home don’t continue without complications
‘With Dius, Stefan Hertmans proves that language is more than enough to capture the grandeur of a work of art, a friendship, a sorrow.’ - **** Humo
Nirwana - Tommy Wieringa
‘Nirwana brings together the debates of our time in an impressive tableau.’ - Frankfurter Rundschau
Over 120000 copies sold!
Rights sold: Hanser (Germany), Jelenkor (Hungary), Iperborea (Italy), Pauza (Poland)
The twins Hugo and Willem Adema couldn't be more different. One is a celebrated artist, the other runs the multi-million dollar offshore empire built by their grandfather. But who was this grandfather, who first fought on the German side and then joined the resistance? When his long-lost diaries turn up, it soon becomes clear that there is much more at stake than just the past. Nirwana is a dazzling generational novel about the intertwining of business and fascism, the rise of the new right, and the question of the power and powerlessness of art, which continues to have an impact on the present day
‘An intelligent book with a critical bite’ - Tagesspiegel
NOVEL
480 pages March 2023
Full German, Italian translation; English sample
SUCCESSFUL TITLES: NON-FICTION
Shortlist Libris History Prize and Shortlist Boekenbon Literature Prize
HISTORY
340 pages (one map, full color ill.) May 2025 English sample available
Land of Thieves - Janna Coomans
Surviving the Middle Ages
Based on newly discovered confessions of thieves, Janna Coomans (1986) explores daily life during the late Middle Ages. What is stolen is valuable: a girl who secretly milks a cow belonging to a nunnery, a goldsmith who woos a miller's wife with a stolen book, a family who unravels a stolen coat and then sells the thread, or a servant who eats his stepfather's sheep.
‘Coomans succeeds in translating thorough historical research into a lively narrative for a broad audience, while at the same time developing a kind of historical empathy in her readers’ - De Standaard
‘In the intriguing Land of Thieves, historian Coomans reveals secrets about the Middle Ages and about ourselves’ - **** de Standaard
Mountain Hunger - Fleur Jongepier
Asking for the Unknown Path
In the mountains, we see better, feel more and think less. Mountains exhaust us, distract us, offer companionship and make us lonely They overwhelm us with their natural beauty and bring us fear and euphoria
In Mountain Hunger, Fleur Jongepier (1986) undertakes a vibrant philosophical journey through the mountains With humour and vulnerability, she shows how the mountains invite us to confront questions and ambitions that, if we just walked a block, we would dismiss as dreamy or idealistic
‘I come alive in the mountains, as if I’ve been vacuum-sealed and someone has punctured the seal and finally let some oxygen in In the mountains, the air is supposed to be thin, and yet, so often, it’s the air at sea level that I feel is the hardest to breathe.’
‘Fleur Jongepier does not glorify the mountains, and that is precisely why this book feels like a holiday’ - ***** Trouw
PHILOSOPHY
320 pages (b&w ill. by author)
May 2025 English sample
SUCCESSFUL TITLES: NON-FICTION
Over 100.000 copies sold!
Napoleon. In the Shadow of the Revolution - Bart Van Loo
An essential work on Napoleon and the French Revolution in less than 500 pages
HISTORY
494 pages 2019/2023
Full French translation; English sample
Rights sold: Flammarion (France), Mondadori (Italy), C.H. Beck (Germany), Head of Zeus (World English)
From the international bestselling author of The Burgundians
Napoleon is one of the most influential figures in all of history, yet he raises an enormous number of questions Bart Van Loo (1973) goes searching for the man behind the myth and finds answers in the engrossing and extremely turbulent years of the French Revolution, when the old world gave way and everything changed The French Revolution and Napoleon: the two most captivating Homeric stories in one sagacious and compelling tale.
‘A master test of erudition that combines factual veracity with an elegant style, and reads like a novel ’ – Le Soir
The World and the Earth - David Van Reybrouck
How do we keep it safe?
Rights sold: Actes Sud (France), Suhrkamp (Germany), Fraktura (Croatia), Idee/Feltrinelli (Italy), Endebate (Spain).
The biggest security issue of our time is not the world with its mutual conflicts, but the earth that is becoming more and more disordered. For David Van Reybrouck (1971), this spherical model is a metaphor for the global challenges of our time: we must save the Earth – but we are attempting to do so with a form of diplomacy developed by thinkers and politicians such as Richelieu and Metternich in past centuries: world politics, in which ultimately raison d'état is the deciding factor. In view of the impending climate catastrophe, we must invent new, planetary forms of Earth politics that focus on the Earth's raison d'être Models such as a global climate council, for example, in which Earth citizens selected by lot deliberate on the fate of the planet
‘The threat to the globe is forcing diplomacy, after its bilateral and multilateral phases, to take a further step in its development: ‘planetary diplomacy’ is needed; raison d'état must become ‘reason of the Earth’ The masterful narrator Reybrouck demonstrates this vividly’ - Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung
ESSAY
80 pages April 2025
Full French and German translation
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