Skip to main content
A tale of longing

Little Paradise

Jef Aerts

Lilita’s father founded Barnstad and built a house there for himself and his wife. Her mother, however, felt the need to go wandering, and out of desperation and love he built a wall around the city. When she succeeded in escaping all the same, he had the city hermetically sealed. Lilita was born outside the wall, and keeps all her questions and thoughts about her father in a pair of antlers, which keeps on growing bigger. She succeeds in getting into Barnstad and meets her quarrelling half-brothers and her father. But does he want to get to know her?

Aerts has a remarkably pure, poetic style.
De Leeswelp

‘Little Paradise’ is a tale of longing, of family, of breaking free and wanting to belong and the difficult balance of all those elements. But it is also full of adventure, with storylines that cleverly twist and turn and an action-packed climax. The fairy-tale atmosphere is counterbalanced by realistic details, lending the whole a refreshing sense of originality. Jef Aerts spins a web of beautiful metaphors and well-developed characters with a deeply melancholic undertone.

A compelling tale filled with fantasy, philosophy and poetic phrases
Het Parool
Reminiscent of master storyteller Paul Biegel. Daring and remarkable
NRC Handelsblad