An archive of loss. A year of unrelenting rain. Imaginary beasts mapped with scientific precision. A pop icon dissected as cultural myth and collective obsession. As the season turns, this autumn's selection dwells on what vanishes, what endures, and what we invent to make sense of both.
One of the strongest and most sensitive voices in world of the Belgian graphic novel
Stripweb
In 2071, after yet another devastating flood in Brussels, Beth has been forced to flee to Norway with her grandson Tommie and her elderly mother Rosa. The reception by the Norwegian system is correct but far from friendly. In Judith Vanistendael’s hands, what could have been a dystopia becomes something moving, humorous and luminous. In lively colours she creates a vision of the future that is far from rose-tinted yet brimming with hope.
Adventurous, mildly sarcastic and a feast for the eyes. The most literary graphic author of the Low Countries ****1/2
Knack
With ‘The Moonwalker’, Simon Spruyt surprises readers with a layered narrative that is a cross between a biblical story and science fiction. He weaves in the history of nomadic peoples and urbanisation, alongside a philosophical exploration of human nature and its tendency towards religion and violence. Yet it all adds up to an adventurous story with many light-hearted scenes imbued with a clever sarcasm. Perhaps above all it is a true pleasure to look at.
Olbrechts is a consummate master of both storytelling and drawing
Enola
In September 1921, four ambitious young men are sent to Siberia’s Wrangel Island to claim it for the British Crown. The young Iñupiat woman Ada Blackjack goes with them to cook and sew. In the end, Ada and her cat are the only members of the group to be rescued alive after two years on Wrangel Island. In ‘Ada’ Olbrechts transforms a forgotten tragedy into a compelling, vividly realised and highly accessible graphic novel.
Jeroen Janssen is a legend in the field of graphic journalism.
NRC
Armed with a sketchbook and a pencil case full of coloured pencils and felt-tip pens, Jeroen Janssen takes readers to places and people that are often overlooked. He gives them a face and a voice, and shows the unexpected beauty of their surroundings. Janssen’s keen eye for detail is reflected in colourful, richly layered illustrations. Slow journalism at its best.
De Vlieger approaches her subject with sincere admiration, and it shows.
NRC on The Big Chicken Book
From the prehistorical apple through Greek myths and Norse gods via Newton to Snow White: Evelien De Vlieger tells fifteen stories in which the apple is central. The stories alternate with heaps of facts about apples. ‘The Fairest of Them All’ shows that an apple is far more than just the most boring option in the fruit bowl.
The stories are gripping, the writing is smooth, and the illustrations are colourful, funny and very beautiful.
Hebban on 'A Small World History in 100 Big Dates'
‘The World Is Full of Wonders’is a lively collection of humorous stories about great artists and iconic masterpieces as well as lesser-known names and unexpected events. The lively, colourful illustrations bring artists, artworks and historical events to life, making this book a true cabinet of wonders where looking, reading and discovering go hand in hand. The result is a vibrant tribute to the power of art.
Peter Goes takes readers on a journey around the world to discover dragons, spirits, gods, monsters and other wondrous creatures from every continent. ‘The Atlas of Fabled Beasts’ is a book that sparks curiosity and invites endless exploration.
An exquisitely told story, the illustrations are stunning in their simplicity
Pluizer on 'I’ll Stay If I May'
Mole and Maurice are inseparable. Until one day, all of a sudden, Maurice says, ‘Bye, Mole!’ – and disappears without explanation. Mole doesn’t know if his friend is ever going to come back and finds comfort in the things Maurice has left behind. ‘All of a Sudden’is a warm and affectionate picture book that shows how true friendship endures, even when someone goes away (if only for a while).
We seldom see so much humour, beauty and linguistic creativity.
Cutting Edge, on ‘Show and Tell Me the World’
'What If?' takes readers into Tom Schamp’s boundless imagination, where dragons serve tea, mammoths become pets and every page sparkles with unexpected discoveries. This richly detailed look-and-find book invites children to dream, invent stories and explore endless possibilities through Schamp’s trademark humour, colour and visual wit.
The coolest, funniest and craziest children’s book of 2024
Wonderland by Alice on ‘Wille’
Princess Aurelia’s gold has disappeared, and she commands Brunhilde, a sharp-witted chambermaid, to solve the mystery alongside her famous uncle, Sir Faintheart. If they fail, they will pay with their lives. With buckets of humour and plenty of pace, ‘Sir Faintheart’ is a hilarious whodunnit full of exuberant humour and set in a delightfully grotesque world.
Waking up alive. Knowing what day it is. Having friends. On his first day in the rehab facility that is supposed to help him overcome his addiction, 17-year-old Lee writes down these three advantages of a life without drugs. Through Lee’s eyes, the reader has already witnessed how the boundaries of time blur when he is high, and how he makes sure that he is always high.
De Groen lives up to all expectations with her lyrical sentences, her deadpan humour and her nods to David Lynch.*****
Knack
Few debut novels become such an instant cult sensation upon publication as ‘Corpus Britney’. The book appears to begin as a crime story, but also explores the dark side of capitalism. Science fiction, historical fiction and crime fiction merge in a rich, maximalist novel that constantly surprises the reader and immerses them in new worlds.
A celebration of language. Her language is sensory, shaped by rhythm, sound and feeling.****
NRC
Helle, an internationally successful artist, is devastated when Alma, her closest childhood friend, unexpectedly cuts off all contact. In a lyrical, sensory style, Astrid Haerens explores the complex boundaries between friendship, love and loss.
An ambitious novel that delves deep; it is of a high standard both structurally and stylistically, and offers a compelling reading experience.
Het Nieuwsblad
Actress Abbie de Lange is playing the early 20th-century Irish writer Therese Mae Smith in a historical biopic. Gradually, the line between the two women begins to blur. Abbie recognises herself in Therese: both lost their mothers at a young age, struggle with motherhood, and neither is taken seriously when it comes to their artistic ambitions. Their lives become increasingly intertwined, which is also reflected in the structure of the novel. A gripping novel about motherhood, longing, loss and female self-determination.
A compelling, non-moralistic, empathetic exploration of non-traditional ways of loving ***
De Standaard
Eleven years after his art history teacher, Ilara, suddenly disappeared from school, she shows up unexpectedly at Willem’s door. Silent and distraught, she moves in with him without explaining what happened. Gradually, a novel about complex forms of love, boundaries, art and care unfolds.
Bert Moerman skilfully plays on our expectations of a family reunion ****
De Standaard
The recently retired Nadia is looking forward to a new and carefree phase in her life and finally having time for herself again. But as her children go their own way and her husband finds it difficult to adjust to retirement, she feels her familiar world starting to crumble. Moerman explores themes such as transience, family, love and letting go and brings existential questions to the fore.
A plotless novel that nonetheless manages to be incredibly gripping****
De Standaard
In ‘You Sit on a Chair’, Bob Vanden Broeck takes as his starting point an extremely simple situation: a person is sitting on a chair at a table. What at first seems mundane, branches out into memories, fears, desires and philosophical reflections on identity, perception, time and the relationship between body and mind.
Anyone who can capture such a sometimes ice-cold world in such warm prose deserves every praise.
De Standaard
Flemish city-dweller Matthias Declercq has been fascinated by the idea of the wilderness ever since he was a child. What would it be like to live far away from everything, in the heart of nature? He decides to follow in the footsteps of a fellow villager who emigrated to Alaska in the 1960s and ends up in Tanana, a tiny village on the River Yukon, inhabited by only a few hundred people.
Very accessible – even for chronically overstimulated teenagers.
De Reactor
With sharp observations and a healthy dose of irony, the author shows us how we can reclaim our attention by embracing precisely what the digital world has taken from us: boredom. In doing so, he rediscovers the poetry of the everyday.
In ‘Archive of a Possible Loss’, Tine Hens goes in search of what is gradually slipping away from us in a rapidly changing world. She travels to landscapes under pressure – melting glaciers, depleted fields – and observes the animals and plants that are losing their habitats, such as the once so familiar lark. Along the way, she submerges herself in her own memory, where the old abundance still resonates.
How do we hold on to hope in dark times? How do we stay human when faced with inhuman conditions? And what can we do when fundamental values such as freedom, tolerance and pluralism come under pressure? These are the central questions explored by Alicja Gescinska in ‘Women in Dark Times’.
What You Need to Know to Understand the Middle-East
Clear and concise
Boekenkrant.com
The Middle East dominates the news almost every day. From the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, from the wars in Syria and Yemen to the lasting consequences of colonialism and geopolitical power struggles: the region seems to be becoming increasingly complex. In this book, Koert Debeuf makes this complex reality understandable.
