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.
A summer Friday on the coast. Jonas is in an apartment with a view of the sea. He sits facing the door, waiting, a pistol in his lap. 'Blindly' is a humane, poignant tale of beauty and decay, deeds and dreams, the chosen and the damned.
Devisch extends to us something we can grasp in order to pull ourselves out of the morass.
Knack
Anyone who thinks restlessness is a phenomenon specific to our own times is mistaken. For centuries people have sought a solution to a problem of which they themselves are the cause: an excessively full life. But is restlessness really a problem or one of our primary motivations?
Huet’s writing is quite simply superb: elegant, colourful, lively, with great feeling for detail, witty and never condescending.
Kees 't Hart
Of all the art of the Flemish School, the work of Pieter Bruegel (1525?-1569) seems most typical of the Low Countries. His familiar and much loved paintings turned him into a folkloric icon, even if that does not entirely square with his life story. Leen Huet has written the first proper biography of the sixteenth-century master.
His trademark has become a personal, erudite and stirring form of history writing.
Vrij Nederland
For more than a century, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany shared a neighbour, Neutral Moresnet, a completely forgotten mini-state that is now part of German-speaking Belgium.
Michael De Cock’s retellings of Greek myths leave room for the imagination and reconstruct these ancient stories in a contemporary and accessible way. A collection of beautifully illustrated and timeless adaptations of classical tales.
An ultramodern Romeo and Juliet that takes place in two different time dimensions. Dutch artist Hanco Kolk and Fleming Kim Duchateau each tackle one dimension. There is just enough friction between the two styles of drawing to maintain the tension.
Belgium in the 1990s. Hannah and Sophie are twelve and inseparable, the way only twelve-year-old girls can be. But when Hannah falls for the charismatic Damiaan their friendship changes. Then, after a late-night party in the village, Sophie fails to come home.
Hurtles along like a high-speed train and has you in its grip right from page one
De Leeswolf
This novel spans the last eight hours in the life of Haruki, a Japanese macaque who ‘lives’ in a neurophysiology laboratory. The story is told from the perspective of Haruki himself, as he reflects on virtually every aspect of being an experimental animal, while awaiting ‘his last major experiment’ – being put down.
For the brief duration of a poem, Van Istendael manages to save people, things and a dialect from fading into obscurity
Cobra
Van Istendael takes notice of people as closely as he observes the objects around him. He serves up beautiful, melancholic poems of earthly tragedy. The ‘People’ section is an ode to the (almost lost) dialect and (almost) bygone times.
So confusing, intriguing, dark and horrifying that you want to devour every single page *****
Cutting Edge
'Cinderella' is a semi-autobiographical novel about the son of a prostitute who opens a brothel and becomes his mother’s pimp. It is a grand novel, written in raw prose, tackling the tribulations of running a brothel and the inescapable relationship between mother and child. It is a refreshing combination of filth and the sublime, of tragedy and comedy.
Godon is a master of using minimal media to represent emotional states.
Zilveren Palet jury
Let yourself be moved by this playful, poetic story about a grandson and his grandfather, who is slipping into dementia. With large, colourful and raw illustrations ‘My Grandpa is a Tree’ makes a sensitive subject approachable.
Verster is a master at evoking atmosphere and longing.
JaapLeest
Five-year-old Matteo has the best day of his life when he gets a soccer ball and a pig for his birthday. For Vasco the pig, it’s also the best day of his life – it’s not even his birthday and he still gets Matteo. Edward van de Vendel beautifully describes the loving friendship between Vasco and Matteo, while Alain Verster adds another dimension to the story through his illustrations.
When Hummingbird asks Croc to play a game, the crocodile’s reaction is a little condescending: 'No, you’re far too teeny-tiny.' When Croc finally comes round and they play hide-and-seek together, Hummingbird’s size is its strength: it’s not easy for the crocodile to find the little bird in the dense jungle.
With a few very assured brushstrokes and a unique use of colour which adopts a different palette for each story, Gisquière succeeds in creating a sense of alienation while at the same time writing atmospheric, poetic stories.
Lina and Judocus have a unique take on the world. They talk about the big things and the little things in life and if there’s anything they don’t know they just make it up. Lina and Judocus are only too happy to question all those things adults take for granted. All too often, the siblings know best. And who’s to say they’re wrong?
Simple observations transport the reader into a silent world of universal emotions and wishes.
Mappa Libri
The narrator unfolds a day in the lives of a handful of characters, uncovering their wishes, memories and doubts. The short, associative, expressive texts create evocative insights into their inner lives. The dreamlike images, filled with humorous touches, are an ode to beauty, nostalgia and the power of the imagination.
‘What only we hear’ sketches the deeply human ups and downs of life in a large modern city. De Coster subtly intertwines the fates of her characters, with her typical stylistic bravura and humour.
This is theatre that derives its reason from social maladies while at the same time providing something for the actors to get stuck in and viewing pleasure for the audience.
Focus Knack
The police investigation into the Nijvel gang has become a major debacle in Belgian legal history. In the early eighties, a number of savage raids were carried out on supermarkets, with the perpetrators using brute force and shooting several accidental passers-by in cold blood. Thirty years on, the investigation has reached a dead end. Michael Bijnens, known for his research-based plays, spoke to investigators involved in the case and wrote a fascinating piece of theatre.
Charlotte Van den Broeck won her poetical spurs in a similar way to Maud Vanhauwaert, namely onstage. The accompanying familiarity of her name provided her debut ‘Chameleon’ with the necessary impetus. ‘Chameleon’ would appear to be the perfect title for a debut volume of poetry.
Her universe is peopled by characters and situations which brutally burst into your imagination and remain there to haunt your dreams when you are wide awake.
Jury Report VSB Poetry Prize
Delphine Lecompte’s poetry creates an extraordinary universe, peopled with characters of highly diverse plumage. The poems are self and family portraits, which, like mirrors at a funfair, magnify the poet’s world into mythological dimensions and associations and reduce it to personal dramas. Full of unusual trains of thought, they seem most like lucid ravings.
Ruth Lasters operates with a pair of silver scissors, filleting modern society affectionately, but uncompromisingly.
Jury Report VISB Prize
She connects a football game to the way our brain works, and flashing neon lights remind her of her own futility. Ruth Laster's poetry is characterized by playful leaps of the mind, yet they are never banal. Lasters employs language as a magnifying glass: she twists reality to see with a crystal-clear vision, against the loss of wonder, and for the gusto of discovery.
Erik Spinoy constructs his collections with great care, dividing them meticulously into sections and cycles that reinforce his treatment of themes. He rediscovers himself time and again, like a snake shedding its skin. His book ‘Now is Already too Late’ is no different in this respect, and at the same time it is.
Gronda writes clear prose, melancholy, but seasoned with a slight irony that alleviates the weight
Haarlems Dagblad
Three days before a major exhibition of his paintings in Venice Igor Nast receives a call from his half-brother, summoning him to Switzerland to his father's deathbed. A father of whom he cherishes not a single memory.
Skorobogatov carries you off and bewitches you with his lovely language ****
NRC Handelsblad
‘Portrait of an Unknown Girl’ is not only a powerful story of the beauty and tragedy of first love, but also an uncompromising portrait of an inhumane epoch and an oppressive regime that breaks people, punishes innocence and integrity and ruins lives.
Daem's stories exude daring and the urge to experiment. ****
Cutting Edge
This book is Daem’s disconcerting, funny and idiosyncratic debut. Despite the often dark subjects – he does not fight shy of death – Daem invariably allows a gleam of hope to show through in his stories. He carries the reader along with his excellent sense of control and structure, working out the dramatic storyline to the last detail.
Glasgow, 1983. One stormy November night, six-year-old Rosie Thompson disappears from the bedroom she shares with her twin sister Ruby. No trace of her can be found. Thirty years later, someone leaves a message in the confession book of an old Scots clergyman: ‘I’m sorry about what happened to Rosie Thompson. May God forgive me.’
A poetic comics debut, a parable about being different from other people, about being introverted rather than extroverted, about the past and how we always carry it with us.
The wave of migration in the 1960s and 70s in a child-size format
Knack Focus
Grandpa Monji tells his granddaughter and grandson the story of how he, a Tunisian, ended up in Belgium. The young reader learns about another time, a time when people moved thousands of kilometres for work, and a marriage between a Belgian woman and an ‘outsider’ encountered a great deal of suspicion. A plea for mutual understanding, and a sensitive book about respect, with a dash of humour.
Arnon, a guy who flitted from one romantic conquest to another before his death at a young age, looks back at his brief life. One by one, Maarten De Saeger tells the story of various people who played a role in his life. Gradually it all comes together to form a mosaic that does not present Arnon in the best light.
Without grand gestures but all the more impressive for that
Cutting Edge
At the age of 56, Ephameron’s father was struck by primary progressive aphasia, which meant that he lost his speech and language and gradually succumbed to dementia. ‘Us Two Together’ is his daughter’s autobiographical account of the last ten years of his life.
The quirky little sisters Kinky and Cosy manage to wreak havoc with all their naivety and innocence. Three small panels – that’s all Nix needs for a daily dose of nonsensical and politically incorrect humour.
Anneleen, Bert, Bavo and Astrid form the Honey Honeys, an ABBA tribute band. As their success grows, their lives start to run increasingly in parallel with those of the original ABBA members, with all the associated drama. Maarten Vande Wiele’s unabashed love for ABBA leaps off the pages.
Every page reveals an eccentric and original cartooning mind at work.
The Comics Journal
Olivier Schrauwen’s grandfather Arsène leaves for the Belgian colony of Congo in 1947, where he and his cousin Roger have planned a hugely ambitious project: a utopia of modernism, right in the middle of the jungle. Sometimes funny, slightly surreal and often beautiful.
Blond quiff, jutting chin, self-confident grin and completely ignorant of any taboos – that’s him, the one and only Cowboy Henk! With their most popular hero, the illustrator Herr Seele and his writer Kamagurka have created a mixture of Mr Clean, Adonis and a hillbilly, entirely in the tradition of the Belgian Surrealists.
El Pocero, a filthy rich estate agent, loses everything overnight when the property market collapses. And Marinaleda, a Spanish village organised as a cooperative, is led by an extremely left-wing mayor. ‘El Mesías’ tells, in uninked pencil drawings, the tale of people who are searching for something, in a story that actually keeps hope alive.
‘The Big Book of Trains’ more than lives up to its title: it offers an historical overview of the development of trains, starting with the Industrial Revolution and the steam train. In his familiar, delicate style and from different perspectives, Mattias De Leeuw creates his own universe, executing it in great detail.
A novel full of suspense which will leave you dazed
De Morgen
In ‘Hunt’, as in his previous novels, Elvis Peeters succeeds in raising a fascinating moral issue through what appears to be just a story: what would happen if animals could think too? ‘Hunt’ depicts the biotope of man as an animal among animals. Will human hegemony remain in place, or do we need to share our dominant position with others?
A rich, accessible treasure trove of facts and figures
Financial Times
‘Timeline’ is a trip through time, past dinosaurs, Vikings, Aztecs and spaceships. It is an illustrated journey through our world’s culture and events and travels from the Big Bang to the iPod. Peter Goes constructs a continuous line, on which different historical periods make their appearance one by one.
Bron is growing to be too big for his mother’s milk. He can't wait to explore the world around him, and all the interesting things just waiting to be discovered. Bron slips away, and is captured by people. Fortunately, Ma manages to enlist the help of a whole group of other animals, and together they manage to free Bron.
Jack doesn’t want to be a gnome anymore, but dreams of becoming a cowboy. Dimitri Leue packs this funny story about breaking away from conventional patterns with puns and absurd jokes. Tom Schoonooghe’s illustrations in coloured pencil are cheerful, lively and full of details.
Christophe Vekeman decides, after a series of well received but not particularly successful novels, to give up writing. In ‘Hotel Rozenstok’, Vekeman presents an original and persistent challenge to all aspects of writing, balancing on the tightrope between fiction and reality, between fantasy and realism.
Rough-and-tumble versions you have never heard before
De Morgen
In ’Dirty Skin’ anthropologist Marita de Sterck has collected forty Flemish folktales, uncensored and as close as possible to the oral tradition. Sometimes farcical and often grotesque, they are jam-packed with violence, lust, jealousy and the black arts.
The Boy, the Hornbill, the Elephant, the Tiger and the Girl
So beautiful that you often want to read passages twice.
Friesch Dagblad
A boy is taken to a secret valley by the men of his village, where he is to be initiated into everything a man needs to know. Fear, courage, loss and death are the themes that emerge from Peter Verhelst’s poetic words. Carll Cneut complements the story with pictures that show the beauty of nature and the insignificance of humans.
Against the background of a community trapped between tradition and change, between past and present, ‘Moon and Sun’ is a family saga about background and poverty, honour and betrayal – a tale of fathers and sons and the soul of an island.
‘Love, So To Speak’is a stylistic, inimitable dark game between three characters in a love triangle in search of a foothold in a rocky life. Whether love can offer them that is very much the question. A virtuoso blend of philosophy and satire.
A novel about the ‘gap' inherent in the human condition and about the equally human desire to keep filling that gap with stories. It is a wonderful, stylistically astonishing trip that completely overwhelms the reader.
A courageous, inspiring and enthralling book *****
De Standaard
‘Thirty Days’ is a novel about goodness and compassion. The book finds the perfect balance between sensitivity and humour, hopefulness and criticism, cheer and despair.
Pitilessly tense, stylistically strong and more suggestion than slaughter.*****
De Standaard
In ‘Fall’ Roderik Six goes armed with stylistic brilliance in search of the ultimate evil, and what loneliness can do to a person. He proves himself a master of suggestion: his ironic narrative style and sparse, subtle use of language create the perfect atmosphere and tension.
An ambitious young adult novel about the things that divide us: money and religion
Trouw
Babel is an exciting, profound novel, in which Jan De Leeuw again shows that his great strength lies in creating complex, thoroughly credible characters. In this flawlessly constructed story the puzzle is slowly laid out and no one turns out to be what they seem. Apparently effortlessly De Leeuw embeds the human struggle of his characters in a web of religion and superstition, Biblical and jihadi themes.
Does anyone seriously think 'theology' is a real subject? See Maarten Boudry’s wonderfully scathing Sokal-style hoax.
Richard Dawkins
Can we survive without illusions? Sure, nobody wants to live in a fiction, but truth can be hurtful or unsettling. Then is it not allowed to bend the truth a little once in a while? Maarten Boudry will have none of it.
