Small Days
'Small Days' features a selection of columns about Bernard Dewulf’s everyday family life. He follows his children’s development from birth to puberty, from security to detachment. Their silent presence at home, their experiences at school, their dealings with the world outside. The strength of the family bond is clear from how much they miss each other when either the author or his wife is away from home.
Often these occasions summon up memories of his own childhood and his own relationship with his parents. In so doing, the writing is suffused with the notion of time passing.
A stylistic crown jewelJury Report, Libris Literature Prize
Bernard Dewulf’s prose is striking for its subdued tone, its beautiful metaphors and its natural lyricism. He pins down fleeting, ordinary moments into valuable, intimate tableaux and in his own idiosyncratic way, makes personal experience universally recognisable. How wonderful it must be for his children to see their childhood recorded so well by a loving author father! 'Small days' is a unique poetic diary of daily life, evoking affection and admiration in equal measure.
An extremely personal and extraordinarily formulated ode.NRC Handelsblad
In his search for lost time, the author dissects the small and at the same time the great things in life and holds on to that as he writes.De Telegraaf