Autumn welcomes us with crisp air, colourful leaves, and an array of exciting Flemish voices we'd love to introduce to you. There’s something here for everyone.
After the death of her mother, Evelien Rutten embarks on a pilgrimage to Auschwitz-Birkenau during the winter of 2004. For the first time, she visits the place where her Polish grandmother once stood face to face with Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. A choice made in 1943 determined the survival of an entire family line. In the biting cold, the author solemnly promises her late mother and grandmother that she will return one day, once she has a daughter of her own. By 2023, her teenage daughter is old enough, and it’s time for a road trip: her daughter is about to receive the history lesson of a lifetime.
Masterly. A shadow play that seems horribly topical
De Standaard
A young family goes on holiday to Italy and feels distinctly unwelcome there. The prospect of a conjuring show promises a welcome light-hearted distraction. But the magician turns out to be a hypnotist who takes a wicked pleasure in getting people to dance to his tune, with tragic consequences. Tinel makes tangible the discomfort and disquiet that are deeply embedded in Mann’s story.
Rich and vivid language and packed with gorgeous illustrations
Hebban
As Leonardo da Vinci wrote centuries ago, ‘We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.’ With ‘Wonderground’, Sarah Garré and Heleen Deroo want to change that. In five themed parts, the two scientists guide us through the thrilling underground world. A very special book for future subterranean heroes.
Nuyts has written a novel that is bizarre, tense and surprising. ‘Groundwork’ is a penetrating, socially critical and deeply literary work. ****
De Standaard
From her colony in the Horn of Africa a naked mole rat was sent to Vaderlandsplein, a square in Brussels. She waits in her hiding place for a briefing from her colony, which fails to arrive. While awaiting the briefing, she keeps herself busy by digging, undermining her new city. Sink holes appear everywhere, literally fragmenting the infrastructure of the political heart of Belgium and Europe. A meeting and growing friendship with a climate activist, however, produces an unexpected twist.
Modern diplomacy, that centuries-old dialogue between nations, must urgently reinvent itself. What might that look like? In ‘The World and the Earth’, David Van Reybrouck offers a passionate and boundary-pushing proposal to radically broaden our thinking – and our politics.
A great picture book with gentle humour; an ideal bedtime story!
Boekenzoeker
Loe is a stubborn toddler who has two grown-ups. She observes the adult world with amazement, and sometimes a dash of pity. Loe doesn’t understand why big people step outside the white stripes on the zebra crossing (surely everyone knows that’s where the crocodiles lurk). They also forget to look under the bed every evening to check that no monsters are hiding there. Her child’s logic is both funny and familiar.
In ‘It Sparkles’, Lara Taveirne and Marieke De Maré have collected a series of poetic and moving short stories set in Bruges, the town about which they wrote together between 2023 and 2025. The stories, written alternately by each of them, arose from their meetings with various residents of Bruges. Each story depicts a snapshot of human connection. The stories are small in scale but extensive in their emotional reach. Both authors write with a keen eye for detail and a big heart for people who generally tend to be invisible.
Anemone is not like other princesses. She loves everything that’s dirty or sticky, or a bit smelly. Anemone refuses to wash and gives up combing her hair. Everything sticks to her face or her hands, to her mother's great despair. ‘The Princess of Sticky Fingers’ is a modern fairy tale full of humour and with a contemporary twist.
A poetic and exceptionally beautiful story about knowledge, wonder and the unknown
Blunder
A famous ornithologist is firmly attached to the certainties of life, until he sees a bird he doesn’t yet know, and everything is suddenly up in the air. The solid ground under his feet falls away – or is this his chance to look at life with fresh eyes? ‘The Nameless Bird’ is a moving story about an adult who rediscovers his childlike sense of wonder.
But effective help does not get off the ground without experiental knowledge
de Volkskrant
This book bridges the gap between academic analysis of poverty and the lived experience of those who have to face it. Avoiding sensationalism and self-pity, the author uses parts of his own story sparingly, only as a tool to illustrate his analysis. Aimed at the privileged, this is a crash course in understanding poverty’s depths – a vital step towards meaningful change. Because fighting poverty begins with seeing it differently.
A fun, fresh addition to the array of books that break through gender stereotypes
Cargo Confetti
Boris is getting ready for Doll and Action Man’s wedding party. He folds napkins into flowers, blows up white balloons and makes the finger food. But when he tries to get Doll to wear a princess dress, things don’t go as planned. ‘Bridesmaid Boris’ is a colourful picture book that treats diversity not as a subject but as the most natural thing in the world. The flamboyant pencil and aquarelle drawings in bright colours make the merriment leap from the pages.
An impressive account of hope, love and devastation. *****
NRC
Gardener Alois is called to arms in the summer of 1914. As time goes on, he becomes more and more conflicted, about what good is, who God is, and who he is himself. In this voluminous tale in soft greys and browns, Joris Vermassen stresses the importance of beauty and love in all their forms, against the background of the hell of the First World War. ‘Soldier-Gardener’ is a nuanced portrait of a man and a world in crisis.
His language roars, rumbles and crackles. Only a born storyteller can write like this.
NRC
Properzia de’Rossi is stubborn and knows what she wants: to become an artist. But in Bologna in the early sixteenth century, a young woman doesn’t have much say over her own life, let alone have the chance to become a sculptress. So Properzia decides to take her fate into her own hands. Cinematically written, full of adventure, with a great sense of humour and a female rebel in the leading role, ‘Properzia’ is what we have come to think of as a true Van Rijckeghem.
Supremely painstaking and precise. An idiosyncratic interplay between content and form. *****
NRC
Shortly after the birth of her child, motherhood draws a young woman into an existential crisis. Love for the baby doesn’t come; the alienation, despair and exhaustion are total. In a fragmented form and with penetrating insights, ‘The Animals Within’ describes her struggles. The book is a clever experimental exploration of the destabilizing experience of postpartum depression, told through a woman for whom the normal world becomes incomprehensible.
‘Peremen!’, the song that reveals a vital piece of European history
De Standaard
When the streets of Minsk filled with demonstrators in the summer of 2020, cameras captured a group of cheerfully dressed musicians performing a rousing version of ‘Peremen!’ (‘Changes!’), the Soviet cult hit by the band Kino. The crowd sang along at full volume, and the song became the anthem of the protests against Belarusian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko. Peter Vermeersch was so moved by the footage that he decided to chart the erratic life of this pop song. The result is ‘Pulse’, the story of a song that, in passing, reveals a crucial chapter of recent European history.
An ode to misfits, to eternally young spirits in an adult world. ****
Humo
Author Maarten Inghels feels the lack of a certain amount of danger in his life. Along with an elephant, he follows in the footsteps of Hannibal, the man who in 218 BCE crossed the Alps with thirty-seven elephants to take the Romans by surprise. As their journey goes on, a close bond develops between Gideon and Inghels, and the author allows himself to be led by the elephant instead of the other way around. The novel is presented as a factual travel account, but plays with the unbounded possibilities of fiction through surrealism.
Bear is a self-confident expert at spotting animals. But he rarely follows his own well-meant tips – stay alert, adopt a good posture, look underwater and in the sky – and invariably peers in the wrong direction. This sparks great hilarity among young readers. Read-aloud pleasure guaranteed!
One of the most impressive of new European writers, for both page and screen.
John Boyne, Irish Times
In ‘Beginnings’ the protagonist returns to the seaside resort on the Belgian coast where he grew up. On the sea dyke he looks at the building in which his family ran a hotel for generations, a place imbued with memories, stories and scars. The novella is a free, associative narrative in the poetic and evocative style that Angelo Tijssens has made his own, it's constructed out of short, sensual scenes that dig deeper and deeper into a personal and collective sense of nostalgia.
A clever, caustic book that, like every good comedy, leaves a bitter aftertaste.
NDR Germany
From one day to the next, Berlin is swarming with elephants. As a thank you’ for tighter legislation governing the import of hunting trophies, the president of Botswana has given the Germans 20,000 elephants as a present. Germany’s federal chancellor Winkler is challenged to deal with the crisis, while elections are due and the extreme right is hot on his heels in the polls. Gaea Schoeters has written a light and humurous political satire that interrogates the way the West treats Africa and is a plea for ecological seriousness.
In beautifully detailed black-and-white drawings alternated with series of colourful, breathtaking spreads in acrylic, Leo Timmers depicts the close friendship between Mimi and her horse. For ‘Mimi & Me’, he learned how to use a dip pen to make fine line drawings full of shading, a supremely successful choice that places a lot of emphasis on the horse’s muscular body and its body language. This intimate, moving book marks a new step in Timmers' oeuvre.
A small masterpiece that moves and consoles and at the same time makes us think.
In de boekenkast
In a fit of rage, Jackson accidentally injures his teacher’s leg. It’s his fault that Ms Annie is out of the running for months. Jackson feels terribly sorry, but he just can’t get the word ‘sorry’ past his lips. Can the strange old man who calls himself King Lear help him? Lievens succeeds in finding the perfect balance between raw reality and absurd fantasy. ‘Visiting King Lear’is a moving, tender and in places very funny novel.
A novel that depicts today’s world in all its disorientation and ambiguity. *****
Knack
Mira looks back at her time in the company of Ludwig von Sachsenheim, a famous director and artist. Years ago she decided to join Ludwig’s social-artistic experiment in Berlin, the Neue Gesellschaft, a kind of artistic variant of Big Brother. The experiment runs aground, however, when Ludwig is taken to court for sexual intimidation, subsidy fraud and other charges. Several years later, when a journalist approaches Mira, she looks back on the ambiguous part she played in the dynamics of the Neue Gesellschaft.
In simple words and sentences, Janneke Schotveld brings the world of best friends Hanna and Hamza to life beautifully, in a book that is witty and cheerful without ever being shallow. In every spread, Arevik d’Or’s colourful drawings exude exactly that same atmosphere, with their relaxed lines and their accessibility. ‘Hanna and Hamza’ is airy and light, but manages to touch the reader all the same. A beautiful gem for early readers.
Little elf Selfie and the five Gompies hear an unfamiliar sound in the forest: something keeps saying ‘oink’. The little blue animal with one ear and lilac eyes looks sad and lost. But they can’t make head or tail of its oinking language. This cheerful adventure story is full of magic and of comical chaos in which the reader becomes thoroughly immersed. A colourful fairy-tale book, it’s also an ode to stories, to nature and to the arts as an antidote to heartlessness.
After the last page you immediately want to read it again. ****
De Standaard
As children Felix and Louise, brother and sister, are inseparable. Everything changes when, on holiday, they are approached by the father of their playmates. After that, nothing is ever the same. Felix’s mental health gradually declines and Louise enjoys feeding her brother's fears and driving him further into psychological isolation. Lenny Peeters plays a brilliant game with chronology and perspective. In a story that topples at an accelerating pace, the reader is challenged to discover the truth.
Kimia is a brave and self-assured girl, growing up in the heart of Africa. In Europe, meanwhile, the continent of Africa is being divided up as if it’s a no man’s land. The story of Kimia is interspersed with spreads about the historical context, from before 1884 to the independence of Congo in 1960 and beyond. This sorely needed book shows at a child’s level how terrible Congo's colonization was and the impact it had, and is still having, on the people of Congo.
Skorobogatov opens his heart and shows the pain that became the essence of his life.
De Tijd
Aleksandr Skorobogatov tells the story of his son. When the boy is fifteen, the author receives an email from him after they’ve not been in touch for years. The restored contact is only brief, since after barely ten days of emailing back and forth, the boy is brutally attacked and dies a violent death. More than twenty years pass before Aleksandr Skorobogatov tells the poignant story of his loss, and looks back at their relationship and the reason they didn’t see each other for so long.
Emily is fourteen and convinced that she’s going to make it in Hollywood. She also resolves to become popular at last. How hard can it be? Meanwhile she finds herself wrestling with her sense of loyalty to her divorced parents. Then, to top it all, she falls in love with a girl. Full of sarcasm and irony, and with an outlandish gift for exaggeration, this clumsy drama queen is a character to embrace with all your heart.
One can speak of Elsschot’s oeuvre as great European literature
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Set in a down-market Paris boarding house before World War I, this novel is a masterpiece of ironic black humour. The Villa’s owner, the energetic Madame Brulot, is childless and lavishes more affection on her pet monkey, Chico, than on her husband, an embittered ex-solicitor.
