De Bezige Bij Foreign Rights Guide, Spring 2021

De Bezige Bij

The Busy Bee Foreign Rights Guide Spring 2021

DE BEZIGE BIJ, THOMAS RAP & CARGO

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FOREIGN RIGHTS GUIDE SPRING 2021

Sandra Langereis Marcia Luyten Tommy Wieringa Ignaas Devisch Jurriën Hamer Engelberts; Vermeer; Zwartepoorte Joris van Casteren Laura Jansen Fernande van Tets

NEW LITERARY NON-FICTION Erasmus: Life of a Maverick ..................................................2 Máxima Zorreguieta: Motherland ..........................................6 Thoughts on Our Time ...........................................................8 Fire: A Forgotten Issue .........................................................10 Why Villains Lose And Heroes Win ...................................12 The Potato Eaters .................................................................14 Loneliness.............................................................................16 We Saw a Light: Reports From Lesbos ...............................18 Four Seasons in Damascus ...................................................20

Peter Terrin Helena Hoogenkamp Bart Chabot Cherry Duyns

NEW LITERARY FICTION All The Blue .........................................................................22 Adoring Louis Claus ............................................................26 Pulse .....................................................................................28 Farewell ................................................................................30

W.F. Hermans

CLASSICS A Guardian Angel Recalls: The Cloud of Unknowing .......32

Corine Hartman

NEW COMMERCIAL FICTION The New Death.....................................................................34

Mathijs Deen Stefan Hertmans Erwin Mortier Ewoud Kieft Ernest van der Kwast Alma Mathijsen Jeroen Olyslaegers

SUCCESSFUL TITLES FICTION The Lightship .......................................................................36 The Ascent............................................................................37 The Immaculate ....................................................................38 The Imperfected ...................................................................39 Ilyas ......................................................................................40 Save The Summer ................................................................41 Wild Woman ........................................................................42

Raoul de Jong David Van Reybrouck Miriam Rasch

SUCCESSFUL TITLES NON-FICTION Jaguarman.............................................................................43 Revolusi ................................................................................44 Friction .................................................................................45

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First press quotes: ‘This ambitious

biography turns Erasmus into a

man of flesh and blood.’ – Trouw ‘Because Langereis does this in a highly

readable

way, without pomposity or endless citations, the book has not only become a wonderful biography of Erasmus, but also an attractive and extraordinarily

informative

cultural history of the times in which he lived.’ – Historisch Nieuwsblad ‘Langereis’ biography gives a

detailed picture of his

life as a thinker and man of letters, but also as an intellectual beggar – as someone who was constantly dependent on the gold pieces he was thrown.’ – Vrij Nederland

SANDRA LANGEREIS is a historian and biographer. Her previous biography, The Wordsmith, about printer and publisher Christoffel Plantijn, was nominated for the Libris History Prize and chosen as best biography and best history book of 2014 by newspapers de Volkskrant and Trouw. With Erasmus The Maverick, she has once again published a committed biography that calls attention to culture’s indispensability in all times.

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Sandra Langereis

Erasmus: Life of a Maverick An in-depth portrait of unprecedented scope Erasmus is one of the greatest authors of the Netherlands and Belgium, and even all of Europe. He embodies the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern day. His significance for literary and scientific history is immense. Even today, thousands of his letters on subjects such as moral constraint and freedom of press have lost nothing of their significance.

The majority of Erasmus’ life and work has been neglected until now. Sandra Langereis is the first biographer who does justice to his life story by closely following his correspondence and describing the genesis of his entire literary legacy. She depicts him as the lively author of In Praise of Folly as well as a brazen biblical scholar who came up against inquisitors, but also Martin Luther. Erasmus’ life story sheds light on an eventful era: a century of dark humour and brutal violence, of religious fanaticism and the struggle for intellectual freedom. This rich biography makes history’s relevance palpable.

Erasmus has never been portrayed as this smart, sharp, brave, angry, scared and – in one word – human. And never before has a biography shone as vivid a spotlight on Erasmus’ day and age.

World rights: De Bezige Bij - Biography, full colour illustrations, 702 pages (excl. acknowledgements, footnotes, bibliography & register, 81 pages) - March 2021 – English sample translation available - Featured in Dutch Non Fiction of the Dutch Foundation for Literature

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‘In 1924, Johan Huizinga published his biography of Erasmus.

It is no exaggeration to say that Langereis has surpassed him with The Maverick. She has mapped out, in a way that is pleasantly readable, Erasmus’s great achievements, without losing sight of his at times arrogant, selfish and even cowardly behaviour. She has made Erasmus human again.’

– Het Parool

Why Erasmus should be translated • Langereis follows Erasmus’ life and literary career after closely examining more than 3,000 letters and studying all of his published works • The biography shows that Erasmus played a crucial role in the genesis of Thomas Moore’s famous work Utopia • The biography presents a radical reinterpretation of the relationship between Erasmus and Martin Luther and offers a critical view of Luther’s Bible • The biography gives a vivid account of Erasmus’ relationships with the English king Henry VII and Henry VIII, with Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and with popes Julius II and Leo X • The biography extensively addresses Erasmus’ tireless travels throughout Europe • The author has worked on this sound biography for seven years

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Excerpt: Over at Dover The last winter of the fifteenth century was drawing to a close. At the end of the Michaelmas term, when Oxford’s lecture rooms closed their doors, Erasmus left England’s oldest university. After a long Christmas break in London, where he lodged with the family of Lord Mountjoy, he returned at last to the lecture theatres, libraries and printers’ workplaces of Paris. He made the crossing from Dover, in a small English merchant vessel that would reach France in a day, with any luck, if the wind stayed fair. But the wind often shifted during the voyage, or fell still, causing ships to fall off course or spend days bobbing at sea before they could carry on to their destination, sometimes only to run aground on a sand bank in sight of harbour, where they were forced to wait for the tide to free them, hopefully in one piece. Regular passenger transport did not as yet exist. It was up to travellers themselves to buttonhole merchants and negotiate terms for a passage. The fee depended on the number of masts – the more masts the faster the vessel – and on the goodwill of the skipper. Passengers had to provide their own food and a travelling bed made of wooden slats.

Erasmus had bundled all his heavy luggage into a single large pack that could be stored in the hold with the cargo, to be transferred on arrival to a barge bound for Paris. Besides items of clothing – a black mantle with a grey and black lining, a spare mantle, a pair of purple boots – it also contained notes and books, including a parchment copy of Augustine’s works and the Epistles of Paul. His leather travel bag held essentials for the voyage – a change of linen, a nightcap, a prayerbook. In the leather purse hooked to his belt he carried some small change. His savings were in his travel bag: this meant lugging a heavy weight of gold and silver coins around, as paper money had yet to be invented. Before he could even embark, though, disaster struck. His money was impounded by a customs officer.

Translated by Jane Hedley-Prole

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Press on The Luck of Limburg:

‘A

captivating history. Marcia Luyten pulls out the

literary stops; her language is baroque, spiced and full of

compassion.’ ***** – de Volkskrant ‘Recorded with her

heart and soul: a region and a

family, lost among Dutch history.’ – Geert Mak, author

‘The Luck of Limburg is a beautiful, but above all

necessary book.’ – Annejet van der Zijl, Historisch Nieuwsblad

MARCIA LUYTEN (b. 1971) is a cultural historian and economist. Her book The Luck of Limburg (2015) sold 50,000 copies. It was awarded the Brusse Prize for best journalistic book. Previous works include Goodbye Africa, Seeing Blind and White Person, Give Money. She is a columnist for daily newspapers and presenter on political television and radio programmes.

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Marcia Luyten

Máxima Zorreguieta: Motherland Máxima’s younger years, the contours of a queen From the moment that Máxima Zorreguieta appears at the Dutch crown prince’s side, she finds herself in the limelight. History teaches us: whoever marries a monarch, cannot expect an easy life. How is it that this Argentine has flourished at an old European court? Fifty years ago, Queen Máxima was born in a country in decline. Argentina had missed its great future and was fleeing into nostalgia. The Argentinian tragedy forces its way into her family when her father joins the military dictatorship. What was self-evident in Maxima’s childhood will leave deep scars on her later life.

In Máxima Zorreguieta: Motherland, the first book of a biographical portrait in two parts, Marcia Luyten shows how Queen Máxima has been shaped by the country of her birth. By the big history of a country that dreamed of glory, and by the smaller history of a family bond, great expectations and unconditional friendship. Máxima ventures the crossing from Buenos Aires to Wall Street and the jet-set of Manhattan, but only after a personal struggle.

Máxima Zorreguieta’s free life in Manhattan comes to an end on 31 August 1999, when the press reveals she is the Dutch crown prince’s girlfriend.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Biography – full colour photographs – 352 pages – April 2021 – English sample translation available

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‘I wrote these pieces in a time of great change. Authoritarian populists are gaining ground everywhere. Armed with cynical algorithms, bots and armies of trolls who continuously spread disinformation and fake news, they are sowing fear, hate and division among the confused population. The social fabric is fraying. The consequences of the climate crisis are more visible than ever, in the crop fields the agroindustry’s side effects can no longer be played down, and biodiversity is declining at a spectacular rate. And as if we didn’t have enough to worry about already, halfway through this book a dark horse emerges, called SARS-COV-2, or simply COVID-19.’

Praise: ‘As a columnist, Tommy Wieringa is like a father in a ruthless world.’ – De Groene Amsterdammer ‘Thoughts on Our Time is akin to his novels, since the result of all this fine thinking and writing is light

and dark at

the same time.’ – Humo TOMMY WIERINGA (b. 1967) is the author of, among other books, Joe Speedboat (F. Bordewijk Prize), Little Caesar (shortlist International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award), These Are the Names (Libris Literature Prize), The Death of Murat Idrissi (nominated for the International Booker Prize), The Blessed Rita (both the Jury and Readers’ Bookspot Literature Prizes) and This is My Mother.

Wieringa had the honor of interviewing Barack Obama in 2020. His work is praised around the world and has been translated in over twenty countries.

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Tommy Wieringa

Thoughts on Our Time Urgent and razor-sharp observations by one of today’s greatest stylists Tommy Wieringa is concerned about culture, democracy and intellectual freedom. Although current events are the reason to take up his pen, he always goes deeper by seeing burning questions in their historical context and simultaneously by making a moral appeal.

Wieringa excels as a columnist, his writing offers an incisive analysis of the disruptions of our time and in doing so make us consider them further and search for solutions.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Many option publishers – Essay collection – 304 pages February 2021

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‘To this day we mainly focus ourselves on earthly resources – and wrongly so. The sun cannot and must not be absent from this story.

We must change our course, and the sun would be able to play a key role in such a turnaround. The sun is the eternally burning fire that we are frantically trying to find on this planet. We are burrowing deeper and deeper to pump up the fossil fuel reserves that are left, while overlooking something that is so clear: the sun is the largest fireball in our solar system. It hangs above us, for nothing, free of charge, and with a supply of energy that far surpasses our needs and will continue, according to estimates, for at least five billion years.’

Praise: ‘His book touches on a fundamental philosophical question: what do we want to keep from the project of Enlightenment, and what do we not?’ – Trouw ‘Ignaas Devisch jovially makes you reconsider – de Volkskrant

fire.’

IGNAAS DEVISCH (b. 1970) is professor of ethics, philosophy and medical philosophy at the University of Ghent and the Artevelde College.

He publishes in the fields of social, medical and political philosophy. His critical essay about medicalisation, Sick of Health, was published in 2013. His book Restlessness (2016), which critically examined today’s obsession with finding balance in our lives, and his work The Excess of Empathy (2017), were both nominated for the Socrates Cup for best philosophy book.

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Ignaas Devisch

Fire A Forgotten Issue A bold argument for a new world-view: heliocentrism In ancient times fire was a source of fear and fascination. Countless myths and stories were told and written in which fire was attributed to God or the gods. In that way, fire was made to appear a powerful tool. When modern man, aided by science and technology, was able to tame fire, all of his problems seemed to have been remedied: the control of fire and combustion enabled freedom and progress. What did we still need to worry about?

Like a boomerang, that carelessness has now flown back into our face: the large-scale use of fossil fuels is damaging humanity and the environment’s health.

In Fire, Ignaas Devisch develops a new idea, inspired by such thinkers as Peter Sloterdijk and Bruno Latour, about fire’s place in our world. If we plan on maintaining our quality of life, we will need a new source of energy that supports our freedom and wellbeing without destroying the planet and ourselves. The largest fireball in our galaxy – the sun – has this potential. But are we capable of embracing heliocentrism?

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Philosophy / History – 262 pages – January 2021 – English sample translation available

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Quotes: ‘This book is a provocation, a challenge, a task for us all. It grabs hold of you and doesn’t let you go. Jurriën Hamer shows that serious philosophy doesn’t make life easier, but more difficult. Read this book at your own risk, because once you’ve read it you will never be able to unread it again.’

– Rutger Bregman

‘Jurriën Hamer does what I think a philosopher in our times should do: write in a way that is socially relevant, clearly formulated and well-founded. It might be possible to not always agree with him. It is impossible not to reflect for yourself while reading this book.’

– Dirk De Wachter

JURRIËN HAMER (b. 1988) is a philosopher and jurist. He obtained his doctorate from Utrecht University and has done research at the London School of Economics. Why Villains Always Lose and Heroes Win is his debut.

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Jurriën Hamer

Why Villains Lose And Heroes Win A New Philosophy About Free Will

What would the world look like without guilt and merit?

Does a millionaire have the right to be rich? Should we forgive even a murderer? And can a person ever change their fate? It all depends on our answer to a fundamental question: do we have free will?

For centuries now philosophers have had their doubts as to the answer, and for decades biologists and neurologists have been declaring that free will does not exist. Each year the stack of evidence against free will grows taller: we are a product of our genes, of our history and of our circumstances. And yet we cannot let free will go. This myth has more influence today than ever – in our criminal justice system, our economy and our quest for happiness.

Jurriën Hamer thinks further where others shy away and calls into question the role of free will. Why Villains Always Lose and Heroes Win is a confronting debut with radical implications for the way we live – from our politics to our most intimate relationships.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Philosophy – 192 pages – March 2021 – English sample translation available

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Cheese Soup for two This is the recipe for the original version of cheese fondue. The precursor to the famous dish, if you like. The story goes that during the long, cold Swiss winters the peasants would have less to eat. To still get enough food, they would use the last, old, hard pieces of cheese, mainly the ones that were no longer fit to eat.

Some milk was heated in a pan in which the bits of cheese were melted. That’s where the name we use comes from: ‘fondre’ is the French verb for ‘to melt’, which is of course exactly what now happens in cheese fondue. This rustic cheese soup with only two ingredients is a bit spartan and seeing as there are no original versions to be found, this is the cheese soup as it often appears on the menu in Swiss restaurants today. Make this recipe on a freezing-cold day, in the middle of winter, if you’re feeling truly hungry.

Twenty famous dishes: Babi pang gang, couscous, sushi, Vietnamese egg rolls, chips, goulash, moussaka, tacos, cheese fondue, barbecue, beef stroganoff, ceviche, paella, schnitzel, steak, spaghetti bolognese, rijsttafel, shawarma, coq au vin, and roti.

JORIS VERMEER owned a restaurant in Amsterdam before becoming the presenter of the TV series and author of the book The Potato Eaters.

JOOST ENGELBERTS is director of the TV series The Wild Kitchen, The Tower and The Potato Eaters. He wrote twenty short stories before this book.

BAS ZWARTEPOORTE is a cameraman, director and documentary filmmaker. He supplied the dazzling photography and images for The Potato Eaters.

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Engelberts; Vermeer; Zwartepoorte

The Potato Eaters How twenty dishes conquered the world The history and original recipes of twenty dishes that conquered the world Sushi, schnitzel and steak – they’re world-famous meals that we eat on a daily basis, and yet they’ve become so common that we no longer know anything about them. Where do they come from and why are they so famous? The Potato Eaters went out into world to find out.

Deep in the bowels of centuries-old libraries and from the mouths of chefs, baronesses, farmers, revolutionaries and inventors, they dig up the original recipes. The result is a bold book full of surprising adventures with babi, bolo, barbeque and epic stories about Nazis and spaghetti, mafia members and cheese fondu, seasick cows and meat tea. A journey full of memorable encounters, such as with the last living member of the illustrious Stroganoff family who, after his mother’s death, hasn’t eaten a decent boeuf stroganoff since.

World rights: Thomas Rap – Non-Fiction, Food, History, Travel – Full colour illustrations – 320 pages – April 2021

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While urban growth has led to more people than ever dwelling in one another’s proximity, the interconnectedness and sense of community are crumbling away. While the opportunities for communication are endless and readily available, greeting a neighbor in person seems much less of a matter of course.

The people who have been sidelined often look slightly different, a little less tidy, sometimes downright sloppy. Not always – as coordinator I also dealt with well cared-for lonely people – but in the main they were grubby characters. Why would you still dress yourself tastefully if your image was no longer reflected in another?

Praise: ‘What is reality without Joris van Casteren’s astonishment? A

master of his trade.’ – Geert Mark JORIS VAN CASTEREN (b. 1976) had already earned a name as a journalist for his outstanding rapportage, which had won him the Gouden Pennetje Award, when he made his breakthrough in 2008 with Lelystad, nominated for the AKO Literature Prize. In the years that followed, his books included the equally celebrated The Foot in the IJssel (2013), nominated for the Bob den Uyl Prize, People on Mars (2016), and Mother’s Body (2019), an investigative account of a son who cannot say goodbye to his mother.

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Joris van Casteren

Loneliness On a puzzling phenomenon that affects us all Perhaps because he spent weeks in an incubator as a baby, separated from all human contact, Joris van Casteren has always been fascinated by loneliness: it is a subject he addresses in different guises in all of his books.

In 2018, he was appointed coordinator of the De Eenzame Uitvaart (The Lonely Funeral), a foundation that writes personal poems to salute those who die without a family or social network. There the world of lonely people, which normally is completely invisible, opened up for him.

In Loneliness Van Casteren offers a unique look at his great fascination, which, in these times of Covid, has become even more significant.

Combining wonderful anecdotes with reflections on literature and society, he illuminates loneliness from different sides. It is also a personal tale about his love for a female cellist from Philadelphia who brought an end to his own loneliness.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Non-fiction – 128 pages – April 2021

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We Saw A Light will be published together with a musical album of the same name.

Excerpt: ‘Freedom isn’t something that I understand, not really. I see it when my passport and papers let me fly and ride. I see it when, at the end of the day, I leave the camp through the gate, on my way to my own house. But freedom is nothing that I have ever lost. I only know that I have it, and that they don’t.’ (…)

‘There are dogs that steal your leftovers, cats that live underneath your tent, scorpions and snakes, and a lot of rats among the river of garbage. In the summer, mosquitos roam around you constantly and in the winter the wind can race, blowing you over in a second. On Sundays it’s quiet, the workers don’t come, there's no row of white rental cars along the road. But the police are still there. You live in a perpetual state of alert: a fire, a fight can break out. The police continuously search through the camp. There are drunk people and angry people, people who prey on the weak and sick.’

LAURA JANSEN (b. 1977) is a DutchAmerican singer-songwriter and a tremendously inspiring storyteller. Her debut album Bells went platinum, taking the song charts and stages across the Netherlands by storm with such songs as ‘Wicked World’ and ‘Use Somebody’. She performed her next album Elba around the world. Laura is a cofounder of the aid organization Movement on the Ground, which offers help to refugees on Lesbos. Laura devotes herself fully to independently putting a human face on the harrowing situation at the EU’s borders.

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Laura Jansen

We Saw a Light Reports From Lesbos For two and half years, Jansen devoted her heart and soul to the refugees on Lesbos After an intensive world tour as a singer-songwriter, Laura Jansen comes home to Amsterdam exhausted and with a broken heart. When she hears about refugees arriving at Central Station, she decides to do something. It is 2015 and the refugee crisis is at its peak. She spends evening after evening at the station with others, welcoming and assisting the exhausted and desperate arrivals. Their stories touch her deeply and sketch a clearer and clearer picture of the humanitarian disaster taking place only a few-hour’s flight away. She decides to go to Lesbos for ten days, and stays on the island for two and a half years, devoting her heart and soul to the refugees on the coast and in the camps. Only when she returns home do the aftereffects hit her. Nothing seems to be same.

We Saw a Light is a deeply personal and gripping story in which innocent men, women and children are given a face. A book as piercing as it is hopeful, about vigour and humanity.

World rights: Thomas Rap – Non-fiction – 352 pages – May 2021

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Praise: ‘I highly recommend this book. For those who want a realistic picture of what is really taking place in Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, this is a

must. And for those who still think we can just send Syrian refugees back, this is required reading.’ – Nederlandse boekengids Excerpt: ‘When I accepted a job at the UN in Damascus, I had no idea how quickly you got used to the daily reality of a warzone.

After a few days, I was no longer surprised by bombs. After a few months, I no longer became emotional when people told me about how they had survived on grass and water because their neighborhood had been under siege by President Bashar al-Assad’s men. It became normal that colleagues’ houses were levelled.’

FERNANDE VAN TETS (b. 1985) studied Arabic and political science and moved to Beirut in 2011. She worked as a freelance journalist for international news outlets such as Trouw, De Groene Amsterdammer, The Independent and television broadcaster France 24. From 2018 to 2019, she lived and worked in Damascus for a year as a communications officers for UNRWA, the UN’s aid organization for Palestinian refugees.

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Fernande van Tets

Four Seasons in Damascus Fernande van Tets witnessed the war in Syria.

This is her story.

In March of 2018, when the war in Syria enters its eighth year, Fernande van Tets moves to Damascus. As a communications officer for the United Nations, she lives in the opulence of the Four Seasons Hotel, with the secret service in the lobby, while outside the Syrian army forces the last rebel areas to surrender with starvation and bombings. During what is now called the ‘year of victory’, she sees what that victory has cost: a land in ruins and a people adrift.

She speaks with Syrians about how they see the future – from the fear of disappearing into a Syrian prison to finding a suitable partner now that so many people have died or fled. Syria is pressing for the return of refugees from abroad and, in the Netherlands too, people find it time that Syrians went home. But what is there for them to return to? Fernande van Tets sketches an impressive and terrifying picture of a country where life cannot be taken for granted.

World rights: Thomas Rap – Current Affairs – 352 pages – November 2020 – English material available

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Praise: ‘Peter Terrin has once again delivered a pitch-perfect book, in its mood and intensity reminiscent of novels by

Graham Swift and Ian McEwan.’ – Trouw ‘Terrin describes their love as warm, full and greedy. Their love-making is electrifying (…) It is the way in which he describes the rest, coolly but dramatically, like a sob held in with all one’s might. It tightens

itself around your neck

like a steel wire.’**** – de Volkskrant

‘Bells and whistles are lost on him, as are earth-shattering events. Terrin goes in search

of the great drama

of a little life.’**** – Knack

PETER TERRIN (b. 1968) won the prestigious AKO Literature Prize in 2012 for his novel Post Mortem. Both The Guard (2009) and Monte Carlo (2014) were shortlisted for the Libris Literature Prize. In 2016 he published Yucca, which was nominated for the Gouden Strop Award and shortlisted for the ECI Literature Prize. His novel Patricia (2018) was widely praised by critics and readers alike. Peter Terrin’s work has been translated into numerous languages, including English, French, German and Japanese.

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Peter Terrin

All The Blue ‘The longer Simon looks, the more the complete stillness of the swimming pool becomes an optical illusion projected on the glass partition. Do you ever feel, he asks, if you look long enough, that it’s not a pool anymore? That you see something else instead?’

Simon is nineteen years old when he walks out in the middle of a lecture and drops out of university. He feels lost and doesn’t know how to relate to the village and the modest world he grew up in. Together with his best friend Marc, he whiles away long hours in the Azzurra, a poolside café in the nearby provincial city. It is there, surrounded by the blue brilliance of the pool lit up at night, that a passionate relationship arises between Simon and Carla Binotto, an Italian bartender twenty years his senior. There are rumours about her troubled past and about John, her boorish husband. In hypnotic prose, Pete Terrin carries the reader back to the late eighties and to Carla and Simon, who each find themselves at a turning point in their lives, facing impossible choices.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Option publishers: Liebeskind (Germany), Actes Sud (France), Iperborea (Italy) – Novel – 287 pages – February 2021 – English sample translation available 23

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Excerpt All The Blue: Let me close the curtains first, she says. If they see the lights on, the boozehounds will show up and I’ll be stuck here till daybreak. Carla tugs fiercely at the broad curtains, they sway from side to side. The sound in the bar changes noticeably. Stay a while, she says as she locks the door. I have to tally the register and put the takings in the downstairs safe. I don’t like being here alone with all this cash. On her way to the cellar, she dims the spots above the bar.

When Carla comes back up, she places her cigarettes next to his. She pours herself a second Campari Soda and asks, what’ll it be? I could do with a whisky, Simon replies, for the taste. She nods sympathetically and pours, holding bottle and tumbler high for his approval. The glass is half full, they smile. Carla looks away, slots the bottle back in place and slides onto the barstool beside his.

Why do they keep it lit? Simon asks. The both look at the water in the tiled pool, the blue glow that rises from it. They swivel on their barstools and lean back against the bar. I don’t know, Carla says. It’s the council’s doing.

Perhaps it’s a safety thing. She shrugs.

The longer Simon looks, the more the complete stillness of the swimming pool becomes an optical illusion projected on the glass partition. Do you ever feel, he asks, if you look long enough, that it’s not a pool anymore? That you see something else instead? Carla blows a thin plume of smoke and laughs.

You’re an odd one, she says quietly. For a second, it sounds as if ‘odd’ applies not to him but to his question, superfluous in her eyes. A second later he feels like a boy. An odd little boy beside a grown woman.

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I think it’s beautiful, Carla says. I never tire of looking at it. She says blue is her favourite colour. When John suggested they take over the business, she only agreed because of the pool. And on condition that she could choose the name. Azzurra. It’s Italian, she tells Simon. Though this blue is not really azure. Not like the sea in Italy.

She asks him if he has ever been to Italy. She is amused by the account of his trip as a fourteen-year-old, a walking holiday in Switzerland organised by a health insurer, travelling by night train. Apparently, on an Alpine trek, they crossed into Italy for an hour or two, not that he noticed. My one memory of Italy, says Simon, is a bite on the leg from a horsefly.

Carla says Italy is the most beautiful country in the world. If ever I lived in Italy, she says, I would wear the lightest of summer dresses every day. And flowers in my hair. I would go to the market with a wicker basket on my arm.

I would, honestly, people could think what they liked. And in the afternoon I would go to a little beach, tucked among the rocks, and swim naked in the blue sea. Carla says blue and red are her favourite colours. The red of Campari.

Carla says John doesn’t want to go to Italy. John says, my work is here.

You’re not Italian, he says, this is where you were born.

John says there’s no such thing as blue water, that water doesn’t have a colour. I know water doesn’t have a colour, says Carla, but even so, it’s nonsense. In Italy, water is blue. Even when you hold it in the cup of your hand. All the blue in all the world, God took from the sea in Italy. Everyone knows that.

Translation by David Doherty 25

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Praise: ‘The book reveals something painful and quite ordinary, without Hoogenkamp yelling it in your face. In a literary sense, that is beautiful and effective and justified, and then the actual plot also has something poignant to it too – clever.’**** – NRC Handelsblad ‘Longing, for advanced

feelers.’– De Standaard

‘Hoogenkamp’s ingenious composition, snappy dialogues, agile style and deeply

felt psychology are as

pretty as a picture.’ – Tzum

HELENA HOOGENKAMP (b. 1986) has written ten works of theatre and read poetry at cultural festivals such as Lowlands. Her work has been awarded with the El Hizjra Literature Prize, nominated for the ITs RO Theatre Award and selected for Women Playwrights International Stockholm and Interplay Europe Madrid. In 2015, Wintertuin Uitgeverij published her novella Little Mermaid, Accidentally Dead. Adoring Louis Claus is her debut novel.

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NEW LITERARY FICTION

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Helena Hoogenkamp

Adoring Louis Claus A raw and profound book about love and loss, and the yearning to be truly seen by another It’s 2003, the summer that Louis Claus goes to school wearing a clown suit and Carla cuts her trousers too short, the summer that her father discovers a tumour in her mother’s breast as they make love and her friend Juicy is expelled from school for cocaine-use. After that summer, they go their separate ways, but years later, after her mother’s death, Carla once again becomes fascinated by Louis, who is now a successful author. Upon returning to her memories, she appears to have misjudged their relationship.

Adoring Louis Claus is about the thin line between longing and despair, keeping silent and speaking out; a poetic quest for intimacy.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Novel – 212 pages – February 2021 – English sample translation available 27

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Press on My Father’s Hand: ‘A heart-wrenchingly

beautiful

autobiographical novel about Chabot’s painful youth.’

– Volkskrant Magazine ‘Chabot may have, as he puts it, died a few times during his youth, but that didn’t break him. His humour, his

empathy and his sense of wonder about the world around him have proudly survived. Chabot has turned it all into a splendid,

poetic novel with hints of

magical realism. With gentleness and even a loving gaze, he sketches his childhood and his difficult relationship with his parents that will never, not even as an adult, get better.’ ****1/2 – Telegraaf BART CHABOT (b. 1954) started his career as a poet in 1980 with Popcorn. He later garnered praise for his four-part biography of the Dutch musician Herman Brood. In 2008 he was awarded the Johnny van Doorn Prize for spoken letters. In 2011 he published Deeper Layers, a personal account of his cerebellar pontine angle tumour, followed by his debut novel Triggerhappy in 2013 and the novel Easy Street in 2016. Chabot broke through to a broad audience in 2020 with his novel My Father’s Hand.

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NEW LITERARY FICTION

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Bart Chabot

Pulse A novel in which the pulse of a raw new era makes itself wonderfully palpable Not long after leaving his parents’ house to study Dutch Literature in Leiden, Bart Chabot meets pop musician Herman Brood. They have an immediate affinity to each other, and their meeting will turn out to be the beginning of a lifelong friendship. Brood instantly recognises young Chabot’s uniqueness and talent, and takes him along in the rhythm of rock ‘n roll. And soon there are others too, including the poet Jules Deelder and the author Martin Bril, with whom Chabot will form life-long friendships as well.

During this period, Chabot’s mother and father live in Vancouver, where they have been stationed by The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, not quite far enough away to avoid new confrontations with their son.

It will take another few years before the break is definitive, and by then the son will have become a father himself.

World rights: De Bezige Bij –Novel – 432 pages – May 2021 29

THOMAS RAP

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‘In her dark eyes, I think I can see the birth of the end.

We say nothing for a time. All of a sudden she says: I’ve still got those nice pull-overs, now I’ll never be able to wear them again.’

Praise: ‘Duyns writes with enough sober precision to impress. […] I experienced it as a haunting

book: whoever grows old,

sees here what lies in store for them.’ **** – NRC Handelsblad Press on earlier work: ‘A distant Dutch relative of the German journalist, satirist and writer Kurt

Tucholsky.’ – Frankfurter Rundschau

CHERRY DUYNS (b. 1944) is a writer, theatre- and filmmaker who has written numerous books, including the story collections The Top Man and Hinterland, as well as the novels The Sunday Boy, Dante’s Trumpet and The Chinese Knot. Many of his films have been awarded distinctions, such as the Zilveren Nipkowschijf for the TV-triptych Reports from Life and the Gouden Kalf for his art documentary The Genesis. In 2001, he received the prestigious Prix Europa in Berlin for his film The Dream of the Bear. In 2014, Duyns was bestowed knighthood in the Order of the Dutch Lion for his unique cultural contributions.

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Cherry Duyns

Farewell ‘A while ago I asked you: are you afraid to die? No, you said, no, I’m not afraid. You simply drop off. And when you’re dead everything is gone, I don’t believe in a heaven.

Life is a one-off affair.’

In Farewell, Cherry Duyns looks back at his mother’s life. A life marked by the Second World War, during which she had met a charming, young Dutchman. They formed a successful cabaret duo; together they performed in packed venues and they had a son in that merciless time. She ended up with her husband and child in the Netherlands, a hostile environment, where the marriage crumbled.

One day, Cherry receives a phone call. His mother asks him to come by.

He drives from the Netherlands to Germany, to the city in the valley, where she has been living for years and now spends her final days in a nursing home.

World rights: Thomas Rap – Novel – 238 pages – October 2020 31

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In September of 1971, five years after Beyond Sleep (1966), Hermans published another great novel at the De Bezige Bij: A Guardian Angel Recalls: The Cloud of Unknowing.

The book appeared with a print-run of more than 25,000 copies amid enormous interest from the press. The start of 1972 saw the publication of a second, updated edition. In the years that followed, Hermans repeatedly made changes to the novel, the last time being the sixth edition in 1982. In 1993, the novel appeared in its tenth edition, which has served as the basis for the text of the ‘Collected Works’.

WILLEM FREDERIK HERMANS (19211995) is one of the greatest post-war Dutch authors. He left a massive and varied body of work. Before devoting his life to writing, Hermans taught physical geography at the University of Groningen for many years. He started writing and publishing in magazines at an early age. In addition to novels he published short stories, essays, poetry, plays and translations. In 1977 he received the Dutch Literature Prize, the Netherlands’ most prestigious literary honour. His work has been translated into numerous languages. More recently, a stage version of The Darkroom of Damocles was performed in 2015, and his novel Beyond Sleep was adapted for film by a Dutch-Norwegian co-production in 2016. September 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of Hermans’ birth and the start of a year filled with commemorating events.

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CLASSICS

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W.F. Hermans

A Guardian Angel Recalls: The Cloud of Unknowing A gripping war-time classic On the eve of World War II, a public prosecutor, upset because his Jewish lover has fled and left him, runs over a young girl who was residing clandestinely in the Netherlands. He is torn between his sorrow at the loss of his girlfriend and the guilt about the accident, which is surrounded by mysteries that he tries to unravel as the world around him collapses. Meanwhile, he is watched over by his guardian angel, who whispers warnings to him, and the Devil, who makes use of the same exhortations.

In this highly acclaimed, gripping wartime novel, personally dubbed ‘one of the most beautiful novels that I’ve written’, Willem Frederik Hermans shows that human actions are not purposeful, but amount to a string of randomness and error.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Rights sold: Archipelago (USA/Canada), Pushkin Press (UK and Commonwealth), Helicon Plus (Russia) – Classic – 416 pages – First publication: 1971 – Full English translation available 33

CARGO

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Excerpt: ‘Licking the cake’s pink icing, Max looked at his mother. It was hard on him seeing less and less of her each time. Less of her color, of the light in her eyes. Of her laugh. Everything about her was dwindling. When she first became almost unintelligible with her trembling voice, he was sure that it was inevitable she would disappear completely.’

Press on previous work: ‘A

remarkable main character

of whom we

haven’t seen the last.’ – Algemeen Dagblad ‘Corine Hartman is a

big name

in the Dutch thriller

world.’ – De Telegraaf CORINE HARTMAN (b. 1964) worked as a scriptwriter for many years and now has fifteen thrillers to her name. Her books are celebrated for their gritty action sequences and fascinating characters. She has been nominated for the Golden Noose Award a number of times and has won several Crimezone Awards.

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COMMERCIAL FICTION

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Corine Hartman

The New Death A thriller about a brilliant plan for the future of humanity

According to Faye van Laar, Professor Max Harris has devised an ingenious plan to save humanity’s future with groundbreaking insights into health, life and death. Psychiatric institution Groot Loenen, her home, serves as a testing ground for Harris’ ideas, and that she and her ‘family’ are now happier than ever is convincing evidence for Faye, who suffers from borderline personality disorder.

Together with fellow patient Lisa, she helps Harris sidetrack one of his plan’s opponents. But can she completely trust Harris?

Faye and Lisa are sucked into a dangerous, secret mission that will test relationships and claim victims – and lead to a gruesome conclusion.

World rights: Cargo– Thriller – 350 pages – March 2021 35

SUCCESSFUL TITLES FICTION

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Mathijs Deen The Lightship Nominated for the Libris Prize ‘A pearl, a little book with a big impact.’ – AD Magazine ‘A crystal-clear novella, gorgeous for its language, with short sentences full of atmosphere and meaning.’ **** – De Standaard For the crew aboard the lightship, the work is monotonous, the living quarters cramped and the pay minimal. The men hold watch, chart the weather, note the names of passing ships and keep the light running. During storms the ship jerks at its chain, in thick fog the foghorn blasts, on clear nights the stars are innumerable. And after four weeks the men can go back ashore. The moment they all eagerly await.

At the centre of the small community at sea is the cook Lammert, who prepares meals three times a day at fixed hours. Lammert is the most important man on the ship. Food offers consolation and stability in this isolated life. Things carry on as they usually do, until the day he wants to slaughter a young goat for a stew. The arrival of this young, jumpy animal upsets the fixed routine aboard the lightship and puts relationships on edge.

World rights: Thomas Rap – Rights sold: mare Verlag (Germany), Iperborea (Italy) – Novel –125 pages – September 2020 – Featured in New Dutch Fiction from the Foundation for Dutch Literature – Full German and English sample translation available 36

SUCCESSFUL TITLES FICTION

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Stefan Hertmans The Ascent 45,000 copies sold Nominated for the Libris Prize ‘The Ascent is a brilliant docudrama from the craftsman who previously managed to fuse fact, fiction and autobiography into gold in War and Turpentine and The Convert.’ – Humo In the summer of 1979, a house in Ghent caught Stefan Hertmans’ attention. The drooping wisteria was dusty, but the scent struck him deeply and took him back to his youth. He bought the property on a whim. It was only after selling the house twenty years later that he was confronted with what happened there during WWII. It was a bewildering discovery that the previous Flemish owner had been a SS member. ‘It is incomprehensible,’ Hertmans writes, ‘that everything that I could have already known or at least suspected, I overlooked.’ Gradually, the man he hopes to understand comes into view, as well as his Dutch pacifist wife and children.

Hertmans speaks with relatives, consults archives, finds intimate documents.

In his memories, he wanders again through all the rooms in which he lived for so long.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Rights sold: Harvill Secker (UK), Pantheon (USA/Canada), Text (ANZ), Gallimard (France), Marsilio (Italy), Diogenes (Switzerland), Fraktura (Croatia), Beletrina (Slovenia) – Novel – 352 pages – September 2020 – English sample translation available 37

SUCCESSFUL TITLES FICTION

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Erwin Mortier The Immaculate Shortlisted for the Libris Prize ‘His delicate prose can be as evocative and rhythmic as his poetry.’ **** – de Volkskrant ‘With his intimate family story he offers a better picture of WWII than bookshelves full of carefully documented nonfiction did.’

– Het Parool In The Immaculate, Marcel returns home in a final attempt to break through the suppressed past and discover why he is named after a great uncle who died on the Eastern Front.

Mortier’s sequel to his acclaimed and prize-winning debut novel Marcel is once again a dark family history, in which the Flemish clay is ruthlessly turned over to bring the dark past to light. And Mortier does so magnificently with his elegant, evocative style in which not a word, letter or comma is out of place and which teems with marvelous images.

With this long-awaited novel about the complexity of love, Erwin Mortier confirms yet again that he belongs to the highest class of Dutch-language literature.

International publishers can publish Marcel and The Immaculate in one volume.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Novel – 240 pages – April 2020 – English sample translation available 38

SUCCESSFUL TITLES FICTION

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Ewoud Kieft The Imperfected For fans of the film Her, and the series Black Mirror and The Handmaid’s Tale ‘An extraordinarily intelligent, stimulating debut.’

– Het Parool ‘A convincing, psychological character sketch.’ – de Volkskrant What will remain of humanity when technology will exceed our own capabilities? Cas has grown up in a society where artificial intelligence permeates every facet of life, as a practical guide, listening ear, mental coach and negotiator in matters of the heart. The best possible self seems to be within arm's reach. What started out as a convenient app has become his faithful companion Gena, a voice that guides all his decisions and knows more about the milestones in his life than anyone else. But whenever he chooses, Cas can turn the voice off.

Gena notices that Cas is wrestling with feelings of desperation. Then he vanishes. How could Gena have lost track of him? In The Imperfected, Kieft shows with chilling realism how intimate the relationship between human and machine can become. Can the two merge completely? Or are there irreconcilable differences? And most important of all, is this our future?

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Rights sold: Actes Sud (France) – Novel – 336 pages – May 2020 – Featured in New Dutch Fiction from the Foundation for Dutch Literature English and German sample translation available 39

SUCCESSFUL TITLES FICTION

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Ernest van der Kwast Ilyas ‘Van der Kwast is a master at writing delicious scenes that always hurt a little as well. In Ilyas, he surpasses himself in that respect.’ – Trouw ‘Light as a feather, [Ilyas] dances back and forth between serious subjects and hilarious moments.’

– Het Friesch Dagblad A new Rembrandt has been discovered, a portrait of an unknown young man.

Conservator Peter Lindke disagrees with the ascription. After a television appearance in which he, among other things, declares that the man’s collar could never have been painted by Rembrandt, he is fired. At home he not only finds out that his marriage is in a crisis, but also that his cleaning lady has major problems. He takes her under his wing and manages to get her life back on track. However, when she shows up with Ilyas, a boy with the face of a tortured poet and thirty thousand euros in debt, Peter Lindke hesitates.

Should he also help out Ilyas – and will that give his life meaning? Or is he better off saving his marriage?

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Rights sold: btb Verlag (Germany), Fraktura (Croatia)– Novel – 264 pages – October 2020 – Featured in New Dutch Fiction from the Foundation for Dutch Literature – English sample translation available 40

SUCCESSFUL TITLES FICTION

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Alma Mathijsen Save The Summer Nominated for the Libris Prize ‘Alma Mathijsen has outdone herself with this story. She connects death with the sun.’ **** – de Limburger ‘She writes beautifully and expressively (…) Alma Mathijsen succeeds wonderfully in evoking the girl she once was.’

– de Volkskrant In the bend of a winding road between forests and olive orchards in northern Italy, there is a house that Alma’s parents bought as a ruin. She was less than a year old when they first took her with them and, since then, not a summer passed without visiting the house, where everything seems to happen more intensely than in the Netherlands. Alma’s father fell ill there and passed away the following year, a month before they were to go to Italy. In the summers thereafter the loss grew steadily heavier. The house that was so entwined with him, now symbolized his absence, while at the same time giving her the ability to summon him in hallucinatory images. In the house Alma learned to hide her grief between the cracks and discovered how to let herself fall from the highest bridge in the valley. Now that, for the first time ever, she cannot return this summer, she only has language to win back the house.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Option publisher: C. H. Beck Verlag (Germany) – Autofiction – 189 pages – October 2020 – Featured in Fiction from Holland by the Foundation for Dutch Literature – English sample translation available 41

SUCCESSFUL TITLES FICTION

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Jeroen Olyslaegers Wild Woman 38,000 copies sold ‘Rough, robust, raw – that is Wild Woman. Jeroen Olyslaegers’ new book is like ‘Game of Thrones’ in sixteenth-century Antwerp.’ – Trouw ‘A masterpiece. At times, Olyslaegers brings Shakespeare to mind: warm-blooded and raw, elegant and compact, funny and wise.’ – Het Parool Bear has lost three wives in childbirth. His third partner bore him a child before dying, the other two died with a child in their belly. After so much loss he considers himself cursed. From Amsterdam, Bear calls on God to unravel the supposed curse. He looks back at his final years in 16th-century Antwerp, the city he fled.

The city overflows with trade and money, but a great unrest prevails as well.

Bear witnesses the escalating tension up close in his tavern where free thoughts and sweet wine flow, and where a secret society hatches plans.

Everything is primed when, thanks to reckless world conquerors, a wild woman arrives in his tavern. Wild Woman is a dazzling, monumental novel about Antwerp in the 16th century: a raging city at a turning point in her history.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Rights sold: Stock (France), Helikon Kiado (Hungary) – Novel – 415 pages – December 2020 – English sample translation available 42

SUCCESFUL TITLES NON-FICTION

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Raoul de Jong Jaguar Man Nominated for the Libris Prize ‘A surprisingly rich book.

Without any effort, you observe through his eyes, surprised and moved, entertained and bewildered.’ **** – NRC Handelsblad ‘Raoul de Jong has written an intoxicating book.’ – de Volkskrant At the age of twenty-eight, author Raoul de Jong meets his Surinamese father for the first time. They speak alike, move alike and both believe in wonders.

Then Raoul’s father tells him a story that lingers in his memory: one of his ancestors, a medicine man, could transform himself into a jaguar. Gripped by this mystery, Raoul decides to investigate in Surinam.

The history of the former Dutch colony is one of darkness and slavery, but those who search carefully will also find a great deal of hope and vitality.

Raoul is living proof: his ancestors somehow managed to survive. During this quest, in which he acquaints himself with Surinamese writers, thinkers and resistance heroes, he discovers that the power of the jaguar was essential for the country, and comes to understand how much everyone can learn from it.

In Jaguar Man, written as an adventure novel, Raoul de Jong presents a beautiful ode to the land of his father.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Non-fiction – 256 pages – November 2020 – Featured in New Dutch Non Fiction from the Foundation for Dutch Literature English sample translation available 43

SUCCESSFUL TITLES NON-FICTION

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David Van Reybrouck Revolusi Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World

70,000 copies sold ‘Monumental. A book whose force, as you turns its pages, only increases.’ **** – de Standaard ‘David Van Reybrouck loves oral history and oral history loves him.’ **** – de Volkskrant Indonesia’s struggle for independence, which reached its climax in the 1940s, has long been regarded as a conflict between the colonial power, the Netherlands, and the colonized Dutch East Indies. But in fact, it belonged to world history. David Van Reybrouck’s Revolusi is the first book to go beyond the national perspective and demonstrate the conflict’s global significance.

Indonesia was the first country to declare independence after WWII. Once the Japanese occupation had been ended, young rebels engaged in armed resistance against any new form of domination. British, Australian, and above all Dutch troops were sent to restore order and keep the peace, but instead their presence ignited the first modern war of decolonization. That struggle inspired independence movements in Asia, Africa, and the Arab world, especially when Indonesia organized the legendary Bandung Conference in 1955, the first global conference without the West. The whole world had become involved with the Revolusi, and the whole world was changed by it.

World rights: De Bezige Bij – World English rights: Janklow & Nesbit – Rights sold: Suhrkamp (Germany), The Bodley Head (World English), Actes Sud (France), Taurus (Spain), Feltrinelli (Italy), Natur Och Kultur (Sweden) History – 656 pages – November 2020 – English sample translation available 44

SUCCESSFUL TITLES NON-FICTION

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Miriam Rasch Friction Ethics in Times of Dataism

‘Mind-expandingly multifaceted. Poetic.’

– NRC Handelsblad ‘A salient argument for more friction between people and algorithms.’ **** – de Volkskrant ‘Here is an essayist who playfully combines philosophical, literary and political perspectives.’ **** – Trouw Dataism is the belief that everything can be translated into data. Data secure the world and make it manageable. But for who and with what objective? The ethical dilemmas that surround data are often reduced to issues such as privacy and regulation, while the underlying assumptions are rarely ever discussed. Can humans be understood as algorithms? What happens to the things that can’t be captured in data? And why is a dataistic future presented as inevitable? Against the ideal of an automated world that holds us captive in an invisible net, Miriam Rasch proposes a revaluation of friction.

Friction is a formidable strategy from those who strive for emancipation or actively resist the demand for transparency and constant communication.

Rasch opens the path toward ‘de-automation’ as a possibility for allowing words and things to shine anew. In times of dataism, how can we continue to tell our own story?

World rights: De Bezige Bij – Rights Sold: Typotex (Hungary) – Philosophy – 238 pages – May 2020 – Featured in New Dutch Non Fiction from the Foundation for Dutch Literature – English sample translation available 45

TH O M A S R A P

DE BEZIGE BIJ

C A RG O

Mark Beumer Director De Bezige Bij; Thomas Rap; Cargo

Francien Schuursma Publisher De Bezige Bij

Marjolein Schurink Publisher Cargo

Jasper Henderson Publisher Thomas Rap

Haye Koningsveld Editor-in-chief non-fiction De Bezige Bij

Peter van der Zwaag Editor-in-chief translated fiction De Bezige Bij

Suzanne Holtzer Editor-in-chief Dutch literature De Bezige Bij

Katrijn Van Hauwermeiren Editor-in-chief Dutch literature De Bezige Bij

Chris Kooi Editor translated literature De Bezige Bij; Cargo

Mariska Kortie Editor non-fiction De Bezige Bij

Merijn Hollestelle Editor Dutch literature De Bezige Bij

Roel van Diepen Editor Thomas Rap

Juliet Jonkers Editor Thomas Rap

Marijke Nagtegaal Senior rights manager De Bezige Bij; Thomas Rap; Cargo

Uta Matten Rights manager De Bezige Bij; Thomas Rap; Cargo

Anne van den Heuvel Rights department De Bezige Bij; Thomas Rap; Cargo

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