Flanders Literature helps publishers and festival organisers find that one particular title or author that is the perfect fit for their list or audience. So take a good look around, we present a selection of the finest literature from Flanders. If you like what you see, please get in touch with us for further information.
This duo invariably persuades with original and humorous stories
Cutting Edge
Tinkleman may be a super-hero, but his extraordinary gift - being able to fill an entire swimming pool with pee, and to pee in a nice straight stream without any splashes - is not often called upon.
A fantastically-designed book with surprising, funny facts and wonderful illustrations
Kinderboekwinkel Kakelbont
Did you know that a giraffe can lick the inside of its ears? That we have been brushing our teeth for thousands of years? That you can weigh your head by putting it in a bucket of water? Or that astronauts pee into a vacuum cleaner?
‘321 Super-smart Things You Have To Know’ is a fine pillow book for younger and older Einsteins.
A glittering, psychologically-charged firework! *****
Hebban
Kate works as a nurse in a psychiatric clinic for VIPs in London. Her life turns into a living hell when it turns out that a tweet with confidential information about a patient has been sent out into the world from her account. She loses her job and is hounded by the paparazzi. To make matters worse, there is someone else who’s got it in for her. A wonderfully-written, triumphant crime novel with strong characterisations, in which the various plot threads are cleverly interwoven.
In ‘The Tsar’s Shears’ three people live together in one room, secluded from the outside world. Until one day the tsar emerges from the tube and disrupts the order of their micro society. All of a sudden the rules don’t seem that logical anymore.
Maarten De Saeger confirms his status as a top talent.
Cutting Edge
In order to run away from her worries, Ines moves to her late grandfather’s farm in the Ardennes. One day a tramp appears on her doorstep who introduces himself as John. Ines offers him a bed for the night, but it soon becomes clear that the wandering eccentric is not in any great hurry to leave.
'Mazel tov' is a compelling, thought-provoking story about children growing up in a Modern Orthodox sect, as seen through the eyes of a young woman who is not Jewish. It gives a unique glimpse of the unfamiliar world for both sides.
In this philosophical picture book, Elvis Peeters and Sebastiaan Van Doninck explore themes including home, property, and the budding awareness that others may have a very different take on things. ‘My Rock’ is a story about sharing the same space – a story that couldn’t be more topical today.
‘The People Healer’ is a novel about the invisible forces that guide people’s lives, and about the immutability of those forces. The First World War, Belgian colonialism in the Congo, and the present day are all woven into the fabric of the story. The storylines Koen Peeters sketches eventually converge in a quest to fulfil a longing that every person feels: to discover oneself and to give meaning to one’s own life.
Discover why the glow-worm glows, how the bombardier beetle got its name and in what way a caterpillar can disguise itself. An exceptional ode to the ultimate boss on earth, who will mesmerize young and old.
Masterfully composed by an enlightened illuminator
Terres de legende
A cross between a coming-of-age story and a social satire. This colourful, hilarious and tragic graphic novel is about identity and humanity, about not very intelligent design, about yesterday and tomorrow. With ‘Papa Zoglu’, Simon Spruyt has shown once again that he is one of the most ingenious and funniest comic-book creators in Flanders.
Giving new contextual dimensions to a word that is increasingly being used with the exclusive definition of ‘causing harm to others’
Cutting Edge
We usually think of violence in black and white terms: it is good or bad. Philosophers are expected to provide arguments in support of that perspective. Lode Lauwaert however, believes that such a reductionist view of the world cannot adequately answer complex questions. His ‘Philosophy of Violence’ is an erudite, rich and varied book that encourages the reader to think differently about violence.
The alternation between zooming in to focus on the films and panning out to the world stage works well.
De Standaard
Matthijs de Ridder gives a sparkling account of an artist who was able to embody all the important themes of the 20th century. Using new sources, he casts a fresh glance over the life and work of Chaplin. At the same time, ‘The Age of Charlie Chaplin’ is a phenomenal cultural history of a turbulent period that defines our worldview to this very day.
A melancholic, poetic performance that makes both young and old laugh, think, cry and really grabs them. Intense and engaging.
Theaterkrant.nl
‘Say Hello to the Geese’ is a melancholic and poetic performance capable of touching both young and old. The evocative text leaves room for poetry, humour and clowning.
He embodies his perspective, which is analytic and constantly eager to learn
NRC Handelsblad
Forgotten celebrities, hidden masterpieces and unique areas of nature. This logbook is a colourful collection of notes and impressions, experiences and stories about the nature, culture, history and people of Andalusia.
With the inquisitive gaze that characterises all his works, Stefan Brijs takes a first look at the riches of his new home port.
Peter Goes created a magnificent search-and-find book of mazes and more. He once said ‘I unwind by delving deeper and deeper into drawings’, and it is clear that he invites his readers to do the same. Lose yourself in his labyrinth, and make sure you don’t skip the endpapers! They too will enchant you.
Following the adaptation and sanitisation of fairy stories by the Brothers Grimm, Disney and others, writers are increasingly restoring these tales to their original, complex and sometimes dark and creepy forms. Marita de Sterck is the unbeatable master.
Aerts has the ability to make emotions glow beneath his words.
Kinderboekenpraatjes
Some friends are much more than that. They grow up like twin cherries on the same stalk. Adin and Dina have that kind of friendship. ‘Cherry Heaven’ is a sensitive story about going away and coming back, and about the power of friendship: in spite of Adin’s move to the city, the two children do whatever they can to stay connected.
Impactful. Shows shameful current realities that get deep under the skin.
De Morgen
A girl is hiding in the back of a lorry. She’s sharing the space with a horse, her mum, and Captain Compass, her best friend. They’re on their way to another country, where the walls don’t dance and the houses don’t fall, and where the sky doesn’t rumble like thunder when there’s not a cloud to be seen. A light book about a weighty subject.
A passionate plea against hate, thirst for revenge and the urge for destruction
De Volkskrant
El Bachiri transforms the pain he suffered into a message of love and humanity, in which he appeals to western Muslims for a more humanist approach to Islam. ‘A Jihad for Love’ is the answer to the hatred of those who wish to divide us, of those who propagate violence and terrorism.
A monument, in the oeuvre of Verhelst as well as in the history of poetry
De Standaard
‘Choir’ is the first anthology of poems Peter Verhelst selected himself out of published and unpublished works. This new context forced Verhelst not only to change the chronological order, but often also to a rewriting of several poems.
His sentences are balanced and rhythmic, his language shines. *****
Haarlems Dagblad
Seb and Billie are seventeen and are both a little strange. Thanks to their friendship, the quiet Seb blossoms and opens up. But then Billie has an accident on a trampoline and ends up in a coma. Seb stops going to school and shuts himself away inside his room and inside himself. His despairing parents give him an airsoft gun for Christmas.
In her historical novel, which is based on actual events, Janzing shines the spotlight on the childhoods of two of the greatest icons of the 20th century: Audrey Hepburn and Anne Frank. Two world-famous girls born in the same year, connected by one devastating war.
An astute monument to the dislocation of modern man. A light-hearted yet meaningful portrait of an inscrutable reality.
Cutting Edge
The play wants to explore how some of the most famous exiles of the 20th century defended, revised or abandoned their European traditions in their new ‘paradise’. And whether we, in this day and age, could or would mount a similar defence. An exploration of ‘home’ and the idea of feeling displaced in your own home country.
The subtleness of this poetry continues to affect you, even once you have left the swimming pool of imagination
De Standaard
‘Swimming Pool of Imagination’ is Tom Van de Voorde’s third collection. The poems explicitly reflect the current political and societal issues. He is nothing more than an engaged spectator of ‘military fear’. We might heroically resolve to get involved in the world around us, but to what extent do we succeed?
‘Beyond the Borders’ reads like an ode to the unfathomability of human relationships.
De Standaard
'Beyond the Borders’ is an account of Meulemans' fascinating literary pilgrimage, digging into the history of the American author Glenway Wescott (1901-1987). Right from the very first page this book whisks the reader away to a now-forgotten literary and artistic world in America before and after the Second World War. Gradually, the lives of Meulemans and Wescott become ever more intertwined. Is friendship beyond death possible?
Top-level theatre that explodes your conscience like an expanding bullet.
Knack Focus
This monologue is neither an indictment nor a celebration, but instead explores the complex tragedy of international peace operations. It is a tale of idealism and incompetence, of noble objectives and dirty business.
In a candid conversation, the two characters explore how this new situation can bring them together and how this illness either challenges or strengthens their friendship. Tragicomic, vulnerable and moving – but above all genuine.
In unconnected short texts, Ruth Mellaerts draws the reader into familiar situations, memories, thoughts and feelings. The interaction between words and illustrations lifts the book to a higher level and creates calm and beauty as well as words to ruminate on.
What is love? Is it still possible in this day and age to go through life as a couple? This exuberant and multifaceted piece that deliberately unsettles the reader offers the authors' destabilising, crazy and brilliant take on those universal questions.
With his talent for well-balanced, focused writing, De Moor now occupies an unrivalled position within Dutch-language literature.
Knack
How did the Nazis poison the bustling life of the city? Which communist absurdities were the residents of East Berlin confronted with in the GDR? How did the city transform after ‘die Wende’?
In ‘Berlin. Life in a Divided City’, Piet de Moor goes in search of the soul of the mythical metropolis, a city that suffered like no other during the violent history of the 20th century. The result is an informative and kaleidoscopic book that is truly worth reading.
‘The Fall’ tells the story of five guys who meet by chance over the course of a few years. All five have a single goal: racing, or a career as a professional cyclist to be precise. On the towpath along the river Scheldt, from Ghent to Oudenaarde, they train together: Iljo Keisse, Wouter Weylandt, Dimitri De Fauw, Bert De Backer and Kurt Hovelijnck. Young, virile and popular, they do indeed manage to become professional cyclists. But life is harder than the dream. What once brought them together, racing, just as ruthlessly tears them apart again.
Stroeykens, a physicist at heart, has thought of everything.
KIJK Magazine
What might the end of the world really look like? Should we be worried about the climate, mutating viruses, artificial intelligence and asteroid impacts? Or is that fear just as irrational as that of the medieval cultists who constantly expected another biblical flood to wash away the world?
‘The End of the World’ is a fascinating history of catastrophes, fears and nightmares.
Dewulf’s writing succeeds in making the mundane new again.
Trouw
No matter what Bernard writes about, he sees the world like a photographer, and analyses each moment in a unique, almost philosophical way. These ‘Late Days’ are marked by melancholy, as parenting increasingly makes way for ticking time.
‘I finally understand why my opponents find it so hard to admit that they are wrong’
Stand-up comedian Wouter Deprez
Why do we so often see two camps emerge that are both convinced they have a monopoly on wisdom? Why do we so love to dig ourselves into the trenches of our own rightness? ‘Why Everyone is Always Right’ is the ideal book to give us more insight into the eccentricities of the human spirit.
Fantomia’ provides hours of viewing pleasure, with lots of silliness, creativity and visual spectacle. Reviewers have compared Dieter VDO to the likes of ATAK, Basil Wolverton and medieval painter Jeroen Bosch.
A great creative and imaginative adventure full of surrealistic braveness and subtle humor
Global Illustration Awards Jury
Oskar is a special toy dinosaur. Ever since a little boy received Oskar as a present, the two have been inseparable. So when the boy suddenly loses his buddy, he doesn’t just accept it, but sets off fearlessly in search of the creature. This is the start of a fantastic adventure in which mountains are moved, seas are crossed and the two friends face great dangers.
Once again, a fantastic thriller that you want to read in one sitting.
Het Nieuwsblad
Gaelle wakes up injured in a psychiatric hospital in Berlin. Her seven-year-old son is in a coma in another hospital, and the police suspect her of attempting to murder him. Gaelle manages to escape and is determined to uncover the truth. Michael is a contract killer. When Michael decides to reject an assignment, he knows he must run for his life. One makes a living by killing, the other would kill to survive. And soon their paths will cross...
This comic book’s recognisability has a comforting effect that radiates a warm feeling of gratitude.
Knack
Ilah portrays relationships between men and women in a way that says more than an exhaustive analysis. Her short comics are both candid and subtle, true-to-life and dramatically adapted, apparently nonchalant and virtuoso, modest and self-assured.
‘She Alone’ is a story of a love between Western Europe and Islam, and a confrontation between and a merging of Europe and Islamic values, as well as a dystopic warning for Europe, and its growing fear of everything that is different.
Yuji Kohara is a molecular biologist who is researching the roundworm, C. elegans. One evening he accidentally gets off the metro a stop early. His absentmindedness sets him on the trail of an old flame. What follows is a long night, a restless week and a strange rest of the year.
A razor-sharp book about the cowardice we call neutrality *****
De Standaard
Wilfried Wils is an auxiliary policeman in Antwerp at the start of the Second World War. The city is in the grip of violence and distrust. Wilfried does what he can for himself, avoiding paths that are too slippery.
A crucial book that will stir hearts and minds ****
De Standaard
Stefan Hertmans based the story of ‘The Convert’ on historical facts, and he brings the Middle Ages to life with immense imagination and stylistic ingenuity. This is the story of three religions and a world going through massive change, a story of hope, love and hatred, a novel about a woman who can be certain of one thing: at home the death penalty awaits.
‘Yucca’ is not a classic thriller with a dénouement. The pieces of the puzzle never all fall in the right place, but seek an answer to the question how to deal with threatening violence and loss.
A debut that you wish every writer would write: surprising, imaginative and merciless *****
De Standaard
Eva, in her late twenties, travels back to her native village with a big block of ice in her car. She has been invited to a viewing of a new milking parlour at a dairy farm where her childhood friend Pim still lives, an occasion that will also serve to commemorate the death of his older brother, who drowned as a young man. Slowly it becomes clear she returned to her village to take revenge for what happened to her as a child...
On their way home from a holiday on the Costa Brava, Suzanne, Catherine and Hanna watch as their mother is mowed down by lorry on the shoulder of a French motorway. From now on, father Ivo will do his best to raise their three daughters, but without great success.
Packed with a Verhulstian wealth of poetry and politics
Humo
Liliya Dimova is the art-loving merry widow of an aggrieved Bulgarian writer. Her final wish in life is to correct the literary history of communism and wipe out every word written by Soviet regime puppet Mikhail Sholokhov by using the pages of his book as toilet paper.
For love of her late husband, and for all the other forgotten people who paid such a high price for their freedom of expression.
An original and refreshing study that does not shrink from taking the shine off some well-worn symbolism.
IFILOSOFIE
In this well-documented narrative account, with reference to personal experiences, religious traditions, Western literature and philosophy, cultural, technological and scientific developments, Jan Verplaetse looks for answers to the question of why blood fascinates us, yet instils revulsion in us at the same time.
Ward Zwart and Enzo Smits evoke the atmosphere of endless boredom in which teenagers sometimes find themselves. Zwart creates fabulous things with a pencil. His dreamy and accurate drawings of joyless details and gloomy faces create a slightly nostalgic universe.
