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.
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.
‘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.
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.
Sublime, sketch-like artwork by Mannaert, with sharp dialogue
Metro
The American Weegee’s street photographs made him world famous. Wauter Mannaert and Max de Radiguès turn the photographer into a man of flesh and blood and make you identify with him, so his rather tragic fate hits all the harder.
When widower Anton breathes his last breath and goes looking for his wife Betty in the ‘thereafter’, nothing is quite as he expected. Jan Truyens’ debut is nothing less than an art project: an enormously rich book, with nods in the direction of the ‘Divina Commedia’.
A book in which everything is just right. The best comic book of 2016
De Groene Amsterdammer
Wide Vercnocke subtly builds up a story in which, through shaman’s sessions, the tragedy of the equipment manager at an athletics club is connected to the iconic narwhal and its spear-like tusk. A surprising and highly original story about physicality and rejecting absolute rationality.
A masterpiece of atmosphere and empathy, a must-have book of the year
Focus Vif
‘Mikel’ tells a true story, based on the experiences of the author, Mark Bellido, who spent four years protecting Basque politicians against ETA. With her brilliant use of colour, Judith Vanistendael depicts the light of a wild and rainy Basque Country.
A poetic comic book that fully spotlights Cromheecke’s drawing talent
Enola
Luc Cromheecke and Bruno De Roover depict brief scenes from the life of the cheerful bon vivant Daubigny, based on the letters he wrote to his wife or friends on his travels. The result is a wonderfully relaxing book that paints a beautiful picture of the artist as a human being.
This absurd picture book is a successful introduction to the richly nuanced oeuvre of René Magritte, which at the same time invites one to explore further. Verplancke shows himself a born surrealist.
Following a stroke, Louis can no longer live at home with his wife. Before he has to leave for the care home, the whole family wants to give him one last unforgettable day. Michaël Olbrechts sketches a very convincing portrait of an average dysfunctional family.
His most personal and at the same time most universal book
De Standaard
'Abadaringi’ is a sketchbook and an intriguing documentary about the genocide in Rwanda. Janssen draws the landscapes and settings he encounters, and creates portraits of the people he speaks to. He also tells his own story, in handwritten notes. A phenomenal piece of journalism.
When a little girl sees a jet-black puppy in her bedroom window in this wordless picture book, it marks the beginning of an exceptional night. The clown on the bedroom wall also comes to life and transports the little girl to the circus. In ‘Circus Night’, De Leeuw plays with reality, imagination, dreams and fantasy.
‘The Book of Children’s Books’ is a kaleidoscopic book for reading, looking at and leafing through, for all readers who know how it feels to be a child, and a source of information and inspiration for publishers, booksellers, librarians, teachers – and for everyone else who is passionate about books.
Suzy Doozy is a headstrong girl with boundless energy and imagination. In a series devoted to her adventures, she more than lives up to her impish name. Benjamin Leroy and Jaap Robben illustrate and write with a lot of empathy and love for this recalcitrant heroine.
The illustrations demonstrate impressive skill and a steady hand.
JaapLeest
Walter is always falling asleep. It doesn’t matter where he is: at his birthday party, on the seesaw, in the swimming pool. His parents try everything they can think of to wake him up, but nothing works. Until a little dog walks in by accident and licks Walter’s face. A wonderful universe full of magical details.
True gems of illustrations. An exquisite picture book
Pluizuit
Owlet and Twiglet are two little owls who live in a nest on a branch of their beloved Apple Tree. The old tree has looked after them ever since their parents were killed by a hawk. Now it’s time for them to fly the nest, but will they have the courage? Sabien Clement expresses the vulnerability of the little owls in a beautifully sensitive way.
‘I Must’ is a collection of powerful portraits and philosophical texts full of compassion, vulnerable and confrontational at the same time. It exposes a merciless and terrible human tangle of obligations and expectations. Godon and Tellegen inspire thoughts, give a name to feeling and trigger involvement.
The central character in ‘Me and the Bear’ is young Leo, who in his own eyes meets with resistance everywhere. Only a brown bear does not run away from him. That is the beginning of a friendship that gives Leo enough confidence to go on.
We seldom see so much humour, beauty and linguistic creativity.
Cutting Edge
In this colourful encyclopaedia, children discover the world and learn new words in a playful way. The result is a hefty introductory and comprehensive work, full of dynamic characters and objects, offering a generous sampling of Tom Schamp’s craftsmanship. His illustrations represent a blend of Richard Scarry’s ‘Busy, Busy Town’ and Martin Handford’s ‘Where’s Waldo’.
‘Mammoth' is the story of Theodore Bob Princel the First. Theo’s parents are rich and successful, and they want nothing less for their son. He and Nanny Leg-Hair race through lesson after lesson after lesson. Until Nanny takes a nap, leaving Theo to set off on an adventure.
This adaptation of the ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ classic is one to remember. Little Red Riding Hood remains the familiar protagonist, but this time is a self-aware and determined girl who knows what she wants. And what she wants is red.
Beautiful sentences, funny jokes and original ideas
Jaap Friso
This is not just any counting book: it is cleverly constructed around an increasingly complex list of presents and characters. De Leeuw uses fine, spontaneous lines to draw and paint characters of flesh and blood within stunning settings full of colour and life. It is a collection of sparkling scenes that completely absorb the reader’s attention.
The Very Tired Man and the Woman who Passionately Loved Bonsai
Pure beauty
De Wereld Draait Door
A woman reads a wanted ad in the newspaper one day: “man seeks woman to die for”. When she rings the number, she hears someone sigh. She’s never heard such a beautiful sigh before.
In this picture book for adults, Kaatje Vermeire’s pictures and Peter Verhelst’s words each tell a story of their own. The reader combines the two, creating an artwork on every page.
The atmospheric, bitter-sweet illustrations make the sadness palpable and yet palatable.
De Morgen
'Stella. Star of the Sea' is a tale about loneliness, being different and searching for your place in the world. It is also a story about the boundless nature of parental love and about letting your children go so that they can be themselves. When writing this story, Dendooven was inspired by disturbing photos of refugees and by the horrors experienced by children in war zones.
Rosemary thinks fairies are terribly boring. And the worst of it is that she’s a fairy herself. She would rather be a witch.
To celebrate his twentieth anniversary as an illustrator, Carll Cneut has created new illustrations for this popular picture book.
The first real Dutch-language equivalent of the Treehouse Books
NRC Handelsblad
Gibbe wakes up one morning in the park, with no idea how he got there. Then he meets the Monday man (‘I’m the one who takes you safely to Tuesday’). This book is built on irony and absurdity and defies all the rules of children’s books. Completely crazy, it maintains its ironic style throughout.
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.
