Piet van Aken

Piet van Aken (1920-1984) wrote socially-engaged stories. In that vein, he is considered a successor to Cyriel Buysse and Stijn Streuvels, and is grouped together with his contemporaries Louis Paul Boon and Gerard Walschap. Van Aken gives an authentic form to major themes such as power, property and loneliness, as he does in his novella ‘Klinkaart’. Using practical language at a dazzling pace with captivating style, he proves his affinity with Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and John Dos Passos. In 1966 he was awarded the Flemish State Prize for Narrative Prose.