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.
Olaf's world is shaken by the sudden reappearance of his best friend W. in Antwerp. The news marks the start of thirteen gripping days in which he goes searching for answers. Why did W. disappear? How real are Olaf's memories of their friendship? Hiemstra's debut pays tribute to youth and the idealism that goes with it. An addictive novel with distinctly layered characters, playful in its language and composition.
Pure and adventurous without any fuss; a breath of fresh air amid the hype of children’s book country.
Friesch Dagblad
Eleven-year-old Atta lives in the Stone Age. She is jealous of the boys, who are allowed to go hunting with the men. So she takes matters into her own hands – and finds herself eye to eye with a savage mammoth. Atta is a cocky and headstrong girl that gains a better knowledge of both herself and her prejudices in this thrilling adventure. Jolien Janzing brings to life a version of prehistoric times that makes a delightful setting.
If this doesn’t get you to read, you might as well give up.
De Morgen
Unpopular eleven-year-old Jimmy's luck changes when a new boy arrives in the class. Tristan Ibrahimi is a refugee from Kosovo and Jimmy throws himself into the coaching of his new friend. When the Ibrahimi family receives a deportation letter, Tristan thinks up a plan in which Jimmy will play a crucial role. Born storyteller Lize Spit unfolds the plot of this topical and moving novella in an extremely exciting way.
Another gorgeous Timmers spectacle, full of captivating details.
De Morgen
Four ducks get bored of their little pond. ‘Come on, we’re going to the lake!’ decides one of the four fearlessly. Erik walks at the back of the group and cautiously expresses his doubts. The lake? Doesn’t a terrible monster live there? Unimpressed by Erik’s objections, the group continues undaunted, off on an adventure. In ‘The Monster Lake’, Leo Timmers demonstrates once again what makes him unique as an illustrator.
Penetrating and splendid, full of brilliant, somewhat harrowing images
NRC Handelsblad
A maverick of Flemish literature, Roger Van de Velde has had a lasting impact on the current generation of Flemish authors. The novel 'Crackling skulls' reflects his unique life. In twenty powerful short stories, Van de Velde portrays his ‘companions in misery’, people living on the fringes of society, with whom he found himself in psychiatric institutions. Empathy, combined with a powerful talent for observation, an eye for detail and literary flair, produces compelling portraits of lost souls.
Stunning. A splendid, compulsive reading experience
Maaza Mengiste
The young, headstrong Saba wants to go to school, whereas her brother Hagos is unable to speak, read and write. The siblings, who have an extremely close bond, both refuse to conform to the roles imposed on them by gender and society. A compelling, vivid novel about the everyday challenges, feelings, intimacy, hopes and fears of refugees in an East-African camp.
Magnetic and cruel. A fascinating book bathed in captivating graphics
Télérama
Vincent Bosse is a young drummer in Napoleon’s army. During the campaign in Russia, angel-faced Vincent manages to save his own skin time and again. Can a man be blamed for saving himself in a thoroughly insane situation? With watercolours and a limited but carefully chosen palette, Spruyt brings the war and its horrors convincingly to life. A brilliant exploration of a universal theme.
Yet more evidence of Jef Aerts’ flair for language; some of Ronke’s perceptions are pure poetry.
MappaLibri
Ronke loves running. Preferably by the sea, with the wind in her hair, the sand beneath her feet and the smell of salt in her nose. But two years ago, she crashed into a toddler on the beach. Ronke is blind, that’s why. In ‘Ronke’s Night’ Jef Aerts brings the wonder of science and the power of the imagination together into a thrilling and poetic adventure.
Yet another triumphant experiment for the award-winning Timmers
New York Times
Elephant is shipwrecked, right in the middle of the ocean. Luckily he finds an island that’s just big enough to stand on. Several rescue attempts go awry, but the island becomes a wonderful place in the process. In this jolly book, Leo Timmers swaps his beloved wheeled vehicles for boats. ‘Elephant’s Island’ is captivating proof of Timmers’ skill as an illustrator and storyteller.
Typical Timmers slapstick, with plenty of quirkiness, optical illusions and eye for detail
JaapLeest
The king has seen a dragon and is afraid to go to bed before his three bravest knights have slain it. But where does the dragon hide in the dark? The three knights are undaunted, convinced they will soon find him. But it is not as easy as they had thought. A great adventure in saturated colour.
A great stylist, with an eye for detail and a knack for turning brief scenes into little gems
De Standaard
Jadran is five years older than Josh, but his head and his heart are those of a child much younger. When they find an injured young crane one day, Jadran wants to teach it to fly at any cost. The two boys go on a journey that is brave, adventurous and hopeless all at the same time. Poetic and sensitive without ever becoming sentimental.
A master of suspense and of the subtle untangling of painful situations *****
De Standaard
Her mother thinks Bianca is a girl that requires special treatment. Her father thinks she is unmanageable. And Bianca herself? She doesn’t say a word. Until one hot afternoon in August, Billie King, her favourite actress, is sitting in the living room, sipping a cup of tea. With Billie King around, Bianca is brave enough to take a decision. Moeyaert creates an oppressive atmosphere, in which smouldering tensions can erupt any moment.
A broad, shallow, teeming torrent of facts and marvels: Readers tempted to take a dip will be swept irresistibly along.
Kirkus Reviews
All aboard for a fascinating voyage of discovery in and around the water! In ‘Rivers’ Peter Goes travels to the most famous seas, lakes and rivers across Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Goes creates playful and extremely detailed double-page spreads in which text and image form a unified whole.
Morgan is a jazz pianist from Brussels, with Congolese roots. He has banished the images of his childhood in the tropics from his memories… Until an out-of-the-blue encounter changes his life, that is. This is a novel about ‘half-castes’, and how the Belgian colonizer used to treat these mixed race children, separating them forever from their biological family.
All of his books are a feast to read and look at together
de Volkskrant
Leo Timmers shows off his best side in this cheery story about the scared cat Harry. He gives form to Harry’s quest with beautiful compositions and a relatively subdued colour palette. Timmers paints the fearful cat and his unfamiliar surroundings in his unique style, with precise details. A new highpoint in Timmers’ exceptional oeuvre.
A fantastically-designed book with surprising, funny facts and wonderful illustrations
Kinderboekwinkel Kakelbont
Did you know that a giraffe can lick the inside of its ears? That we have been brushing our teeth for thousands of years? That you can weigh your head by putting it in a bucket of water? Or that astronauts pee into a vacuum cleaner?
‘321 Super-smart Things You Have To Know’ is a fine pillow book for younger and older Einsteins.
In this philosophical picture book, Elvis Peeters and Sebastiaan Van Doninck explore themes including home, property, and the budding awareness that others may have a very different take on things. ‘My Rock’ is a story about sharing the same space – a story that couldn’t be more topical today.
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.
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.
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.
A dark fairy tale filled with troubling implications and haunting illustrations
Publishers Weekly
‘Panther’ is an unsettling graphic novel about a little girl and her imaginary feline companion. Iconoclastic in his cartooning and page layouts, subtle in his plotting, and deft in his capturing of the human experience, Brecht Evens has crafted a tangled, dark masterwork.
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.
A captivating encounter with the remarkable Brontës
Lancashire Evening Post
In 1842 Charlotte Brontë goes to Brussels with her younger sister Emily to learn and teach, in the hope of starting her own private school. What exactly happened in Charlotte’s time in Brussels has never become completely clear... ‘Charlotte Brontë’s Secret Love’ is a Victorian flavoured book, with an omniscient narrator, which exudes a nineteenth-century, Brontë-esque atmosphere.
An unusual tribute to the consolations of imagination
The Wall Street Journal
In this moving story about the healing powers of the imagination, Anton Van Hertbruggen and Edward van de Vendel broach major themes such as sadness and loneliness. Dreamy, realistic and fascinating enough to want to look at again and again.
Much is currently being written about the Chinese exploitation of Africa, but who is writing about the price China pays? The answer: Lieve Joris, and brilliantly, too.
NRC Handelsblad
What happens when people meet who do not share a colonial past? With that question in mind, Lieve Joris leaves Africa for China. In keeping with the modus operandi she has refined over past decades, she immerses herself in the world of Africans and Chinese who venture into each other’s territory in the slipstream of the big trade contracts.
Will often have you in fits of laughter, only to grab you the next moment unexpectedly by the throat
De Standaard
A retired librarian wants to escape the dreary monotony his bossy wife has imposed on him.There is only one, extraordinary way in which he can regain the self-esteem that his marriage has dented.He plans to gradually feign dementia until he finds himself in a rest home, freed from all social and familial pressure.
‘Somersault Day’ is imaginative from beginning to end.
De Standaard
Zsofi jumps off a star and falls down to earth, little suitcase in hand. This is her Somersault Day. A woman climbs out of Zsofi’s suitcase, picks her up and holds her tight. Somersault Day’ is a gripping story about life, love, death and saying goodbye.
Peeters excels in the plausible characterisation of entirely unscrupulous people
NRC Handelsblad
‘Tuesday’ starts as the account of an ordinary day in the shambling life of an old man. Wandering around the city, his memories rise to the surface. The major contrast between then and now, between the impassive registration of daily events where moral implications are entirely lacking and the underlying dramatic life experiences make ‘Tuesday’ an impressive novel.
Like every year, everyone gathers on the top of the hill. Ant is very happy that it is finally her turn to chair the meeting, in which they will discuss a difficult question. Elephant asks how you know that you love someone.
The book is both entertaining and intellectually challenging.
Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies
Verhaeghe looks into the differences between male and female sexual fantasies and recasts the Freudian antithesis, Eros and Thanatos, as a contrast between two different forms of sexual pleasure.
Rosie goes to live in a new flat with her mother and quickly makes friends with the boy on the floor above, Moussa, and with the elderly Mrs Hemelrijk. Together they have a fun adventure on the roof, which has a great view over the city.
Beautifully articulated and full of unexpected twists and turns
De Telegraaf
‘Greener Grass’ is a collection of stories in which a succession of people step into the limelight, all of whose lives contain substantial hidden realms. With their emotional isolation and longing for affection, the characters arouse sympathy and compassion, even if their self-control ends in a violent outburst.
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.
A story that reads like a poetically written prophecy of doom
Het Parool
‘The Uncountables’ is a novel which brings to life the consequences of the warped relationship between poor and rich countries, in this case a Europe languishing in its wealth, and which brings home the possible consequences of an unstoppable stream of refugees. The novel engages with an all-too-real problem in a strongly allegorical way which confronts the reader with his own existence.
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.
‘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.
An extremely fascinating book in which the everyday lives of asylum seekers is told in an unparalleled fashion
De Standaard
The narrator, Bipul Masli, sketches an intriguing picture of life in an asylum centre. He describes the daily routine with detached irony. His tireless attempts to gain recognition as a refugee are both comic and touching.
A feast for the eyes, and an intelligently composed life lesson for both child and parent
Het Belang van Limburg
A little princess loves cuddling, but her mother, Queen Mummy, never has any time for her. She is too busy receiving important visitors. And so the princess goes in search of the Queen of Cuddles. Along the way, she meets various queens who do have time for her and with each of them she has some lovely moments.
All the problems of post-colonial Africa seem to rage there in exaggerated form. Ten years after her highly praised 'Back to the Congo', Lieve Joris was brave enough to return during a particularly precarious moment in Congolese history.
A sparkling novel with a thunderous effect, a Flemish song of truth and semblance
Vrij Nederland
Mortier writes with great powers of suggestion. So many things in this book, although remaining hidden, are made as clear as day.
‘My Fellow Skin’ is ultimately about loss. Anton loses not only his love, but also his youth, the protection of his parents and the old house in the village, and is left desolate.
This novel, peppered with countless striking metaphors and colloquialisms, describes the vivid history of a family in a Flemish village. The essence of the novel is a cautious fumbling for truth. A young boy attempts to fathom his grandmother’s proud, dour demeanour and to get closer to his teacher. But above all he wants to understand what happened to Marcel.
A rabbit family that you instantly adopt as your own
De Leeswelp
Ricky Rabbit is different from the other rabbits: his right ear droops, while his left ear stands straight up. Whatever he does, the other rabbits make fun of him. In the end, his humour earns him a place in the group as the entertainer.
One of the few truly magnificent novels in Dutch language-literature. A masterpiece.
De Volkskrant
This novel tells the story of Ondine, who was born in a poverty-stricken house in Chapel Road at the turn of the twentieth century. The Times Literary Supplement wrote: 'Since its original appearance in 1953, this novel by the candidate for the Nobel Prize has been controversial as only works in advance of their time can be; and even now that experimental writing is commonplace, it has lost none of its freshness and vitality.'
After a mysterious journey in a train populated with sleeping passengers, three train travellers find themselves in a strange, shadowy land, a timeless transition area, to which each responds in his own way.
One can speak of Elsschot’s oeuvre as great European literature
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Since its publication in English, ‘Cheese’ has conquered the world with translations in more than 30 languages. The novella deals with an episode in the life of Frans Laarmans, a clerk who is suddenly made chief representative of a Dutch cheese company. ‘Cheese’ is a satire of the business world and the perfect vehicle for Elsschot’s dry humorous style. In a brilliant evocation of the thirties, it depicts a world full of smart operators and failed businessmen.
Conscience is a Flemish icon, his writing renowned and devoured within his lifetime, even outside of the borders of the newly-independent Belgium
Cobra
The book tells the tale of the conflict between the cities and the lawful French monarch in the County of Flanders during the Middle Ages, culminating in the victory of a Flemish peasant militia over the French knights at the 1302 Battle of the Golden Spurs. Conscience enriches events with a great deal of imagination, and so his account morphs into a heroic, superhuman struggle with a timeless and symbolic significance.
