Autumn is the perfect time of year to dive into colourful, heart-warming and mind-blowing books. Hopefully our selection will set the tone for some cosy autumn days.
Take a closer look at these #irresistiblebooks or meet us at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October.
German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel once summed up his philosophical project with the words ‘So much the worse for the facts’. It was an audacious argument in favour of theory and against the journalistic concerns of the day. In his book of that name, Anton Jäger, an up-and-coming philosophy talent, collects five years’ worth of essays that take an approach based on political philosophy.
Elvis Peeters describes how history operates upon the lives of three generations. Emiel is a child during the Second World War. His daughter Hannelore a ‘no future’ punk moving to London. Grandson Matteo a law student seduced by the extreme right. They all take a stand against their own era and ultimately have to pay the price.
Another gorgeous Timmers spectacle, full of captivating details.
De Morgen on 'The Monster Lake'
Bear can’t find his glasses anywhere, and without them he can’t see properly. On his way to Giraffe, Bear sees all kinds of animals that were never there before. He makes Giraffe curious and they set off together to retrace the route. But now with his glasses on (they were on his head all along), Bear can no longer find the deer, the crocodile, the elephant and the flamingo. Might his glasses be broken?
Reading ‘Mauk’ means digging deep to reach the bottom, but having got there you find gold
De Volkskrant
Mauk looks back on his life with few warm feelings. He remembers above all a tyrannical father who was not in command of his own demons and therefore unleashed them on his wife and child. ‘Mauk’ shows how a violent past marks a person for life. It's a novel about pain, loss of innocence, guilt, loneliness and emotional disfigurement, but also about imagination as a survival strategy. A story both haunting and poignant.
Dazzling and distinctive design combined with subtle humour
Pluizuit on 'Henry'
Brothers Aldo and Rino love Nonna’s spaghetti. When Nonna trips and drops a plate on the floor, the two brothers have to share the remaining pasta. They bolt it down, until a single strand remains. With one end in his mouth, each does all he can to prevent the other from eating the last bit. In this playful and surreal story full of visual humour, friendship, sharing, brotherhood, letting go and getting things into proportion are central.
Sensitive and delicate, with streaks of unruly humour
De Morgen
Slug tells Toad that something is about to happen, without saying exactly what. Together they wait. When the sun rises, it becomes clear to the reader what Slug means but meanwhile Toad has become too agitated to be able to enjoy the sparkling splendour. ‘Just Look!’ appeals to us to look around us, but even more importantly to want, to dare, to see everyday miracles.
An exciting whodunnit and a wonderful piece of biofiction
Tzum
This engrossing historical novel on Charlotte of Belgium opens up remarkable worlds: that of the royal house and the nobility, that of a powerfully evocative Mexico, and that of the human spirit, which after loneliness and longing flirts with madness. Dieltiens shows us a fascinating woman, who flounders and obstinately tries to keep her head above water. In this fictional biography, the daughter of King Leopold I has her honour restored, in sparkling prose.
A contemporary story that slowly seizes you by the throat
Pluizuit
In the underwater state, the pale baron is the leader. He has a strong dislike of poets: one day he fires all of them into space. Fortunately, Felix and Felka are not poets but singers. Yet their names too find their way onto the list of ‘inferiors’ that the dictatorial baron wants to remove from his land. A painful story with humour about how we treat, or are in danger of treating, each other nowadays.
Ambivalent, subjective, with more questions than answers. And precisely for that reason very honest and brave
Rekto:Verso
‘Scheisseimer’ is an overwhelming set of impressions in ink. Through the eyes of a child, we see the cruelty and banality of war come up against the naivety of a little boy who sees adventure and play in everything. At the same time the book depicts the struggles of an adult artist who is trying to come to terms with his past, his family and his origins. A necessary book, full of darkness and empathy, heart-rending experiences and devastating disillusionment.
One of the best Flemish crime novels for a long time
De Standaard
Keller Brik is a classic detective in every sense: pig-headed, cynical and distrustful, yet cursed with an immense sense of responsibility and the conviction that the bad guys must never win. In 'Brussels Blues' we follow him investigating a family tragedy, searching for a vanished transmigrant and collaborating with the biggest mob in the Brussels underworld. In the dark underbelly of the city lies the key to all mysteries.
Compelling, moving, astonishingly true to life – a masterpiece!
Herman Van Goethem
In ‘Lost’ Ingrid Vander Veken uses individual stories to describe the lesser-known pathways of the great events of history. She was contacted by the relatives of a family smashed to pieces by the Second World War, asking her whether, based on a paper archive, she would be willing to search for traces of a woman who, along with her young son, fled Nazi persecution for four years only to die in Auschwitz.
Janssen and Moradi show the beauty of fragile people
Knack Focus
On the edge of Ghent lies a square kilometre hemmed in by a railway line and a major highway. In writing that is both poetic and philosophical, Moradi describes the lives of the residents of her district. With pen, pencil and felt-tip Janssen records colourful impressions of views, homes, people, lives. On assignment in their own neighbourhood, they show the beauty that resides in its ugliness.
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.
Aline Sax convincingly shows how words can be used to make the horror of war almost tangibly present in the reader's mind.
Mappalibri
Berlin, April 1945. Through the eyes of a German girl, Aline Sax arrestingly describes the horrors of war. She does so in short, measured, rhythmical sentences that slow the reader down and increase the impact. In filmic images, a reality unfolds that stresses the moral ambiguity of war. This haunting novel in verse looks at human beings from every angle, as cruel, courageous, cowardly, hopeful, but above all resilient.
In an ancient forest, a ranger finds the body of a young woman lying naked on a tree stump, abused and strangled. The scene of the crime conjures up sinister memories of a cold case from several years ago. The investigation focuses on Suxy, an isolated village in the middle of the forest, inhabited mainly by elderly people and by eccentrics who are trying to build new lives. Sara Cavani of Interpol asks her friend Alex Berger, a rather unusual private detective, to help investigate the gruesome murders.
Manon and Max, along with their teenage daughter Noah and poodle Kim, seem to be the perfect hipster family. A combination of money and taste has persuaded them to buy a crumbling mansion with ‘great potential’. Beneath the banality, madness lurks. De Coster dissects contemporary relationships in all their manifestations, a minefield in which she is able to exhibit her comic talents.
Paul Verhaeghe’s point of view is indispensable in today’s societal debate.
De Standaard
A feeling of discontent is part of our humanity. Despite prosperity on all fronts, the unrest in our society is increasing. In this book, Paul Verhaeghe shows that every era has its own sense of discontent, with its typical problems – such as burn-outs, imposter syndrome and fear of being excluded.
Paul Goossens mercilessly tears to shreds the history of inequality
Humo
How can it be that the wealth of a handful of people exceeds that of half the world’s population, and why is this obscene concentration of riches not ridiculed out of existence? Questions that matter. Critical research into the mainstays of inequality is essential, even in the light of the greatest challenge of our time, climate change.
‘Icons’ offers us a glimpse inside closed mental institutions in Flanders in the 1970s. Patients are inhumanely treated, left to their fate or, even worse, subjected to medical experiments. In a down-to-earth and apparently simple idiom, Vlaminck takes us with him into the head of a corrupt monk.
When Chris Yperman published her debut ‘A Very Tiny Ship’, the book quickly acquired a cult status. In the novella, protagonist and narrator Christina describes and documents her turbulent love life and her interaction with a group of friends and lovers.
Why Nobody Understands Quantum and Everybody Needs to Know Something About It
The scope, depth, and artistry are breathtaking.
John Preskill (Caltech)
Quantum physics gives us an understanding of matter that is so broad, powerful and precise that practically all of modern technology depends upon it. At the same time, quantum is uncommonly hard to fathom. No other theory contradicts our intuition so strongly or has led to so much controversy.
One of the greatest artistic talents of the world of Flemish graphic novels
Enola
Jean is not only the son of a witch, he’s the grandson of a witch, the brother of a witch and the cousin of a whole host of witches. But he can’t cast spells. When a magic-drinker attacks his family, turning the witches one by one into lifeless dolls, it’s up to Jean and his sister to try to save them. ‘Witch Child’ is an utterly thrilling adventure. With humour and verve, Stedho and Max L’Hermenier create a world that is both realistic and magical.
Anne-Laure Van Neer continues to produce writing of a consistently high quality.
Knack
In an assisted living complex, a select company regularly meets in the utmost secrecy: the Thanatos Club. The elderly members have just one wish: to determine how they end their lives and to die with dignity. The members tend to an illicit poison garden that produces the necessary ingredients. But when the greedy director of the complex announces new building plans, the future of the poison garden is suddenly uncertain.
This book will resonate for a long time and I do hope it will have a healing effect on society.
DeWereldMorgen
This book is more than a reconstruction of a forgotten war year. It offers a new way of understanding World War II, which raises questions that reach far beyond the pitch-black year of 1942. Set against this startling background, the author examines the past, as well as the acceptance and denial of what came to pass.
