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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Francis Mus displays an expertise not seen before by Cohen’s Canadian critics.
Brian Trehearne
Authority on Cohen Francis Mus portrays the real Cohen and his recurring demons. He searched for and found ‘Cohen pieces’ that never have been written about. This book offers a unique view into Leonard Cohen’s soul.
It brings the reader closer to the origins and the reality of armed jihad than most of the analyses.
MO* Magazine
Together AlDe’emeh and Stockmans travel to Zarqa in Jordan, the cradle of international jihad and AlDe’emeh’s birthplace in a refugee camp. They returned with surreal stories that make this book unforgettable.
His argument for a collective authority is inspired and well-founded, but also provocative and utopian.
Humo
Verhaeghe seeks and finds a new interpretation in groups, which lend authority to an individual or an institution, whether they be parents’ associations, groups of active citizens or shareholders’ meetings.
One of the great stylists of our contemporary literature
NRC Handelsblad
‘Blood Book’ is an ironic retelling of the first five books of the Bible. These stories are awash with blood, but thanks to their potency and popularity they constitute what may be the most important book in the history of mankind: the Pentateuch. Verhulst tackles the Old Testament with his characteristic linguistic flair, replete with folksy idioms.
Norway, a sleepy fishing village at the beginning of the 20th century. Finn tries to contact his father, out at sea. Against the background of a village that is being forced into modernisation and the inhumanity that sometimes accompanies it, a story of sadness and indefinable longing unfolds, which also smoothly incorporates gripping scenes.
‘Horse in Boots’ is Jef Aerts’ third powerful children’s novel in a row. Aerts excels in combining adventure and excitement in poetic language full of subtle metaphors. The moving friendship between a girl, a horse and an elderly woman is rendered in a succinct but richly evocative style.
In this gem of a story, Bart Moeyaert writes with surprising lightness about loneliness and dying. Gerda Dendooven’s robust green-and-black drawings capture the tenderness of death and the strangeness of this imminent demise.
Aline Sax shows how the damage inflicted by the wall carries on beyond its physical destruction.
MappaLibri
Three generations of Berliners, one wall. In ‘Crossing the Line’, Aline Sax has written an epic tale of life with the Berlin Wall. This tense sketch of a family’s struggle for survival presents daily life in Berlin in a fascinating and convincing light. The threat of the Stasi gradually permeates, and the feeling that no one can be trusted continues to reverberate throughout.
He composes exuberant poems that sometimes come flying off the rails – which is actually quite refreshing considering how stagnant the world of poetry so often is
TZUM
‘Wonderbras & Pepper Spray’ by Andy Fierens is revealing in its contemporaneity. Those who still think that poetry always sings about sublime subjects in a sacred, respectful tone will have to fundamentally rethink their opinions after reading these poems.
As horny as the pope – a new classic tragedy has been written.
De Morgen
From their rapid ascent to the top of the Vatican to their downfall: no barbarity or form of nepotism is too cruel for the Borgias. In a strange way the characters become heroic, but on the other hand we must also judge their actions. This paradox gives meaning to the whole trilogy: we love the monster just as we hate it.
‘The Bench’ is the moving story of a man overwhelmed by loneliness and anxiety. The poetic text and the atmospheric illustrations exude heartfelt melancholy and mournful solitude. Godon makes pain, desperation and yearning tangible.
Roger The Soap Knight is passionate about taking baths, scrubbing up, working in the garden (then taking another bath) and doing the laundry. But he’s also passionate about fighting. Together with Gaston, his clean white horse, he sets out to vanquish a dragon.
The drawings of Johan De Moor and the text of Gilles Dal form an organic unit. Dal’s dark, uncompromising text screams the despair of a mid-life crisis. The constantly thudding question is: is this all there is?
OPN. is a ritualistic performance, a composition in words, pure and simple.
Theaterkrant.nl
Moral boundaries are challenged and openly crossed, provoking the audience to agree or disagree with the statements that are being made. Opinions become questions intended to gauge the atmosphere. Strong convictions give way to insecurities, leading the performers to go along with personal attacks and extreme opinions.
A Shakespearean drama with the allure of a Quentin Tarantino film.
Cobra
Vekeman paints sharp contrasts: between love and death, between the isolated loner and village life, between the sophisticated style and the striking primitivism of the characters and between the absurd humour and the serious topics broached. The charm of this book lies in the impossible combination of contrasts, which, one way or another, are ultimately drawn together.
An ingeniously constructed book, rich in language and nuance
De Morgen
'Thieves of Passion’ is an inspired epos about the youthful years that we lose, the love we long for and the mistakes that shape our lives. Victoria has written a recognisable generation novel about nostalgia for the golden days, for the places, the people and the stories that are gone for good.
The striptease of democracy. […] This isn’t even a tragedy any more. This is how things work. Europe.
De Standaard
Following years of exponential growth, the economy collapsed in 2008. The stock market crash marked the beginning of a worldwide financial crisis that kept Europe solidly in its grasp. In his trilogy ‘Greed’, ‘Fear’, ‘Hope’, Stijn Devillé fictionalised the events to create a modern, political and economic thriller.
Narrative theatre of the most cunning kind. A cracker without frills, but with sequins.
Focus Knack
For nearly three years, Henry Morton Stanley chopped a path through a hot and impenetrable African jungle in search of the mouth of the river Congo – without knowing where he was or how much longer it would take. While letting go of the historical figure of Stanley, De Graef retains man’s journey of discovery through the history of our psychology and human-ness.
A blend of incisive, sensory perception and condensed poetic speech’
deReactor
With ‘Antigone in Molenbeek’ Stefan Hertmans has adapted Sophocles’ tragedy to our contemporary, multicultural society. Antigone is now known as Nouria, a brave young law student from the Brussels district of Molenbeek. Just as in the classic, she wants to pay her last respects to her deceased brother – in Hertmans’ version a suicide bomber – and bury his remains. But the authorities decide otherwise.
Four guards are standing in front of a high wall. They are waiting and keeping watch, without knowing why or for how long. Behind the wall is a state secret and everything is suspect, everyone a potential enemy of the state. But everything changes when one of them suddenly disappears and disrupts their unshakable rhythm.
Everything fits together perfectly in this smart study of life
De Standaard
It is the ambition of many plays to get to the essence of human existence. The theatre group BOG take this task very seriously in their self-titled play. What is possible within the short frame of existence, between birth and death?
A woman and a man are standing side by side onstage; in the background the remnants of their living room, cold and bare. Side by side, but not together, they stare into space. Is there not a spark of love or passion left?
A remarkable piece of theatre – playful, surprisingly and painfully funny as well as moving
The Guardian
1 September 2004. Chechen rebels force their way into a Russian school and hold more than a thousand pupils, teachers and parents hostage inside the gymnasium. Three days later the siege comes to a horrendous conclusion. Two surviving school children try to describe the siege in as much detail as possible to get to grips with the terrible events. But before long, their imagination takes over.
Inspector Meerhout becomes entangled in a web of intrigue, death threats, rough sex and pangs of conscience. Motives and potential perpetrators abound, but where lies the truth? ‘Dead water’ is a real page-turner, with a well thought-out plot and fascinating characters.
Her wonder on existence becomes the wonder of the reader
Jury Report VSB Poetry Prize
Maud Vanhauwaert already had won her spurs on the stage before notably debuting as a poet with her collection ‘Ik ben mogelijk’ (I am possible). ‘Wij zijn evenwijdig’ is a complex collection that at a closer look gets more and more coherent, using rhetorical strategies that easily seduce the reader. Reader and poet, walking parallel, touch each other in infiniteness.
Gradually the light nonchalant tone in Jooris’s poetry disappears and it becomes more severe. The world moves increasingly out of the frame; more and more frequently the poems are about poetry itself. In his poetic work too Jooris has often turned to the world of the arts for inspiration. 'Sculptures' is the perfect introduction to his comparatively modest oeuvre.
After World War I Edgard Demont returns physically and emotionally wounded to his native country.In search of a safe place among the confusion and destruction he finds that lovers are more effective than medication in helping him live with injuries that go deeper than the scars on his flesh.
