Back-and-Forth

A boy writes a letter to a girl. He misses her and can’t wait to hear back from her. But just as he’s about to post the letter, a sudden gust of wind takes off with it. The letter ends up in the hands of various characters: those of a man with a suitcase, a female police officer, a refugee, a child… Meanwhile, the young man’s dog starts chasing the love letter too, determined to deliver it to the girl. At the end of the book, the girl herself is also writing a letter. She gives it to her pigeon, which traverses the book in the opposite direction: from back to front.

And so the last page becomes the first. While reading in the other direction, you discover just how ingenious the text is: the lines in the letters can be interpreted in different ways, depending on the direction you read the book in. Yet their message remains the same: I miss you, write to me. ‘Back-and-Forth’ stands out for Gerda Dendooven’s distinctive and humorous style, an original concept, joyful colours and a frenetic pace, making readers feel as if they, too, are swept along by the wind.