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Modern classic

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  • Cover War and Turpentine
    NY Times Favourite
    Cover War and Turpentine
    NY Times Favourite
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    War and Turpentine
    One of the 10 best books of 2016
    The New York Times

    Right before his death in the 1980s, Stefan Hertmans’ grandfather gave his grandson a few notebooks. For years, Hertmans was too afraid to open them – until he finally did and laid bare some unexpected secrets.

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  • Cover The Virgin Marino
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    The Virgin Marino
    A stylistic tour de force
    De Morgen

    For ‘The Virgin Marino’ Petry was inspired by a notorious murder case in Germany in which a man was castrated, killed and eaten by his friend at his own request. His power lies in a combination of extremely precise, carefully considered formulations and astounding stylistic elegance. 

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  • Cover Speechless
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    Speechless
    A playful, touching, and verbally extravagant memoir-novel of grief
    Kirkus

    'Speechless' is an ‘unadorned account’, an informal, honest testimony of a mother by her son, in which much is in what is not mentioned: good nature, gratitude, endearment, closeness. At the same time, Lanoye reflects on the actual function of writing and the vital importance of language in these circumstances.

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  • Cover The Guard
    EU Prize for Literature
    Cover The Guard
    EU Prize for Literature
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    The Guard
    A tremendous novel, often horrifically funny and always unsettling
    Irish Times

    ‘The Guard’ is set largely in the underground car park of a luxurious block of flats. Two guards, are never relieved. Terrin tells a strongly allegorical story of 21st century society. ‘The Guard’ is not only an enthralling psychological novel, but also encompasses oppressiveness, emotion and sensuality.

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  • Cover Great European Novel
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    Great European Novel
    A revelation. Reading a story like this makes you happy
    Corriere della Sera

    Robin, young and ambitious, takes a tour of all the capital cities of Europe on behalf of his world-weary employer, looking for new marketing strategies for promotional gifts. In ‘Great European Novel’ – a tongue-in-cheek reference to ‘The Great American Novel’ – Koen Peeters has found the perfect form for a book about Europe and the European idea that lies behind it.

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  • Cover While the Gods Were Sleeping
    shortlist Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
    Cover While the Gods Were Sleeping
    shortlist Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
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    While the Gods Were Sleeping
    The footprint of Proust visible on every page
    The Financial Times

    Old Helena looks back on her youth, the loves she has known, her marriage and the distressing time she experienced in World War I. The topic and style make ‘While the Gods Were Sleeping’ in all respects an exceptional literary experience.

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  • Cover of The Misfortunates
    400,000 copies sold
    Cover of The Misfortunates
    400,000 copies sold
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    The Misfortunates
    Continually surprises and intrigues
    The Guardian

    In a forgotten village somewhere in Flanders, a boy lives with his father and three uncles in his grandmother’s house. They’re an ill-mannered and coarse bunch, unpredictable heavy drinkers. Wallowing at the bottom of the social ladder, their lives are a total mess.

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  • Cover of The Angel Maker
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    The Angel Maker
    Unerring and compassionate
    De Telegraaf

    Geneticist Victor Hoppe returns after an absence of nearly twenty years to the village of Wolfheim. The doctor brings with him his infant children – three identical boys all sharing the same disfigurement. ‘The Angel Maker’ is a chilling story that explores the ethical limits of science and religion.

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  • Cover Omega Minor
    Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
    Cover Omega Minor
    Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
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    Omega Minor
    The whole 20th century in one novel
    Richard Powers

    ‘Omega Minor’ is a total novel with an international air, in which the author explores the essence of human nature against the background of twentieth-century history. Its baroque, epic narrative style and structure, its ambition to lay bare human motivation and its determination to present ‘science, art and memory’ as one great interwoven whole make ‘Omega Minor’ a fascinating and thoroughly impressive book.

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  • Cover Sleep!
    Most translated debut
    Cover Sleep!
    Most translated debut
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    Sleep!
    Funny, singular and moving
    De Morgen

    ‘Sleep!’ is a convincing novel about two insomniacs, in which the author uses the complex personalities of her characters to pen a strikingly insightful vision of life and its experiences. Verbeke writes about the underdog, about people whose poignant yearning for a normal life arouses our compassion.

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  • Cover The Plague
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    The Plague
    A talented writer, original and funny, who is definitely one to watch
    Le Monde

    While working on his thesis, David Van Reybrouck came across the accusation that the Belgian writer and Nobel Prize winner Maurice Maeterlinck had plagiarised from the work of the South African author Eugène Marais. ‘The Plague’ sweeps the reader along in a thrilling literary adventure, which leaves its image on the mind’s eye long after the last page has been turned.

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  • Cover - Tonguecat
    Cover - Tonguecat
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    Tonguecat
    A display of fireworks so sensual you can taste them.
    Gouden Uil jury

    Perfect order always degenerates into chaos, and revolutions into hell. Peter Verhelst describes a city falling apart and descending into violence. ‘Tonguecat’ is a real literary tour de force, a visionary story about today’s urban society and about revolutions.

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    Three Sisters in London
    Three Sisters in London will one day form the exquisite prologue to the inevitable Collected Works of Eric de Kuyper.
    De Stem

    During World War I, Eric de Kuyper’s grandfather’s position with the railways took him and his family to London. The family’s three daughters, who were then in their adolescence, never returned to London. They gave this gleaming period of their lives a special place in the stories they often told on family occasions. De Kuyper, who was born during World War II, has collected these stories in a captivating book.

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  • Cover - High Key
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    High Key
    Lively and full of surprises
    De Groene Amsterdammer

    'High Key' is a postmodern novel, a collection of text types: monologues, dances and stories. Hoste tries to create a new reality via the imagination and techniques of association. It can be read as an incantation or a magic spell.

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  • Cover 'Christmas and Other Love Stories'
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    Christmas and Other Love Stories
    Excellent book
    NBD Biblion

    Love and what follows is the theme of this collection of ten stories: about the catastrophe ánd the tenderness of sex, about habit, love-hate, memory, selfpity, rollicking revenge.

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  • Cover Cardboard Boxes
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    Cardboard Boxes
    An original and particularly funny novel full of amusing melancholy
    NRC Handelsblad

    Lanoye has managed to deal with the banal subject of a boy's unrequited love in a thoroughly unbanal way. This auto-biographical story retains its power because it is imbedded in the hilarious background of a childhood in Flanders around 1970. With his rich, melancholic style Lanoye has been able to create a modest monument for his first `touching' romance.

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  • Cover Café De Raaf Is Still Closed
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    Café De Raaf Is Still Closed
    Complete hopelessness without slipping into pathos or protective irony
    Ons Erfdeel

    In this collection of stories Berckmans shows the most unsavoury and corrupt side of reality. The unstable characters bear their existential emptiness without illusions, self-deceiving optimism is alien to them. Every sentence of Berckmans is filled with the buzz of rock ‘n roll. 

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  • Cover - White is always nice
    Cover - White is always nice
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    White is Always Nice
    A moving book with a rich and functional recounting of anecdotes
    Het Parool

    ‘White is Always Nice’ is a moving story about origins, mourning and language. It is the extended monologue of an old woman who has just died but cannot stop talking. In a one-sided conversation with her silent son, she keeps up her usual non-stop chatter as her body is laid out and preparations are made for the wake.

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  • Cover - Aunt Jeannot’s Hat
    Cover - Aunt Jeannot’s Hat
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    Aunt Jeannot’s Hat
    A magnificent book
    Ons Erfdeel

    ‘Aunt Jeannot’s Hat' is set in a suburb of the city shortly after the Second World War. The air is alive with the excitement of newfound freedom and life has taken its leave of traditional conventions. The magnificent and the mundane aspects of a young boy’s life are beautifully depicted in many small details.

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  • Cover By the Sea
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    By the Sea
    Fresh and candid. De Kuypers’s amused style lifts everything up out of the everyday.
    Vrij Nederland

    At the end of the 1940s a family from Brussels resume a pre-war tradition of spending the summer in Ostend, on the Belgian coast. As he plays, the young boy Eric takes it all in: the sights, textures, tastes and smells – all the things his adult self will remember with delight and wonder.

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  • Cover The Man Who Found a Job
    Cover The Man Who Found a Job
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    The Man Who Found a Job
    Virtuoso composition and writing
    NRC Handelsblad

    ‘The Man Who Found a Job’ is a milestone in Brusselmans' extensive oeuvre, serving as unique point of reference for one of Flanders’ most read authors. The combination of desperation and emptiness and the sardonic indulgence of this general malaise in the innocent, unsuspecting citizen caused a major stir in the traditional Flemish literature of the 1980s. 

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  • Cover The Accursed Fathers
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    The Accursed Fathers
    A literary achievement of the first order
    SÄCHSISCHE ZEITUNG

    Central to ‘The Accursed Fathers’ is the life story of Pamela. Rejected by her mother who had been hoping for a boy, browbeaten by her father whom she refuses to hate, the heroine of the story is the eternal victim of a hereditary curse. Through her central character, Monika van Paemel exposes the subjugation of women

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  • Cover Letter to Boudewijn
    Cover Letter to Boudewijn
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    Letter to Boudewijn
    Moving, interesting and a literary jewel in terms of its form
    Vrij Nederland

    ‘Letter to Boudewijn’ is a lesson in social history, a meticulous description of village life, and an autobiography all in one. It is a book in which the author confronts himself with his origins, with the shift from material to spiritual poverty, and with sorrow at the loss of solid ground in a group of people who stick together.

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