Mira adopts a rescue dog called Turbo, a hopeless case. She recognizes herself in the dog’s trauma and fears, and decides to look more deeply into Turbo’s old life: she sets out in search of the hunter who brought him up the hard way. A powerful novel in Marita de Sterck’s unmistakable style.
Thirty-nine-year-old actress Ada presents a theatrical monologue that she has written, in the city where she completed her theatre training years before. It is also the place where her former drama teacher, who she had a relationship with as a student, lives. In Maaike Neuville's semi-autobiographical debut, a woman dares to speak out and honestly investigates where her own boundaries and those of others lie, whilst considering what responsibility comes with a position of power.
Peter Venmans continually succeeds in taking his readers with him in a way that is attractive and accessible.
De Volkskrant
Every day we are somebody’s guest or host. We travel abroad, visit friends, or welcome new staff to our organization. Hospitality is omnipresent. At the same time, some say we are experiencing the end of hospitality. As a result of mass tourism, the rise of the hospitality industry and the Covid-19 pandemic, the spontaneous cordiality of times past is said to have been replaced by commercial considerations, pragmatism and prescribed codes of conduct.
This raw, semi-autobiographical debut tells the story of the unnamed protagonist’s childhood and a night with his former lover. It takes the reader through an emotional landscape that’s reminiscent of Ocean Vuong and Douglas Stuart. In cinematic scenes, Angelo Tijssens depicts the pain and longing of a life spent searching.
Simply brilliant. A cathartic book that needs to be experienced
De Volkskrant
Raaf has had a bad day at school and yet again his mother has disappeared. So when the bell goes, he decides not to head straight home. He turns left instead of right. It’s the start of a remarkable road trip. Evelien De Vlieger interweaves a light adventure with an underlying layer of darkness in a way that is quite extraordinary.
This is a major work by Jeroen Theunissen, one of our best wordsmiths. Impressive.
David Van Reybrouck
When he was around twenty, Jeroen Theunissen came across a map of Europe in a travel agency, with thick purple lines marking long-distance hikes. When, many years later, the writer starts suffering from anxiety attacks and depression and feels melancholic and trapped in an unhappy marriage, he leaves everything and everyone behind, including his two children, and embarks on a six-month walk from Southwest Ireland to the Bosporus Strait.
Erudite, adventurous and lucid reflections on climate, democracy, identity and more.
De Morgen
If there is one line that’s been reverberating in Stefan Hertmans’ mind for years, it’s a well-known quote from Victor Klemperer, written with a steady hand in his famous journals during the Nazi period, amid terror and uncertainty: ‘The contemporary witness knows nothing.’
In this first part of a forthcoming trilogy, Luc Cromheecke draws part of the life story of the famous impressionist painter Claude Monet as it has never been seen before. Without words but with plenty of humour, Cromheecke gives a unique interpretation to events.
As if Vereecken is writing with a brush in her hand, so precise, apposite and original.
Literair Nederland
Jan and Hubrecht van Eyck are world famous, but few people know that they also had a sister who painted. In this novel, Margriete van Eyck is given the spotlight that she deserves. Vereecken reconstructs the life she might have led and brings to life the story behind 'The Ghent Altarpiece', one of the world’s most iconic paintings.
A delightful book to read aloud on cold, wet days.
De Standaard
Crocodile Maurice ends up in a wood by accident. All animals quickly become fond of his cheerful company. But when a storm comes, he’s left behind, alone. What’s more, all the animals soon forget their new friend. Fortunately there’s Mole. Friendship and sociability, fleeing and finding refuge, and the beauty of caring for each other are central in this colourful picture book.
‘The Smells of the Cathedral’ by art historian Wendy Wauters takes us to one of the hotspots of the sixteenth century: the Church of Our Lady, Antwerp’s ‘cathedral’ ever since 1559. This majestic building was the beating heart of the city, where intensely religious parishioners crossed paths with dogcatchers, pilgrims, and livestock dealers. Religious serenity was sometimes hard to find inside it.
An impressive, improbable yet nevertheless true story
Het Belang van Limburg
In ‘Galapagos’ Michaël Olbrechts portrays what has become known as the Galapagos affair, the unsolved mystery of what happened in the early 1930s on Floreana that led to three deaths and two disappearances. Olbrechts’ exceptional insight into the human psyche dazzles once again.
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.
Inspiring stories and beautiful illustrations make this book a real treat.
Voor uitgelezen kinderen
In ‘And They Lived’, Baeten presents an alternative reading of four well-known fairytales in which the female characters take the helm. Visually too, this book breaks with the classic approach to fairytale princesses. The colourful, atmospheric pictures with their wealth of diverse characters fill the pages.
Truly an example of art-historical research of the highest order.
KUNSTTIJDSCHRIFT VLAANDEREN
After eight years of research, Geert Sels has put together the pieces of the puzzle that he found in archives in Paris, The Hague, Koblenz, and the major Belgian cities. Through persistent detective work, he has discovered how the art was taken. He concludes that collectors, dealers, and auction houses showed little restraint in going along with the Nazis' plan to acquire the art.
In this tragicomic tale, Inne Haine and Mathias Van den Berge interweave the lives of a handful of villagers who, like so many, yearn for a different life. How far are they prepared to go to achieve their dream? A wonderful combination of evocative, colourful illustrations and a carefully crafted script.
In 'The Things We Knew in 1972' Geert Buelens addresses the dangerous condition of our planet, a topical, alarming and complex subject, and he succeeds magnificently in making it totally accessible for a broad audience. While the reader remains aware of the seriousness of the subject throughout, the book is as captivating and informative as it is miraculously entertaining.
One of the increasingly rare writers who still shamelessly regards literature as an artform
DE STANDAARD ****
Kasper Kind is a solitary bioengineer who has been placed in charge of a small stretch of woodland that is suffering at the hands of climate change. He is on the point of committing a murder on the public figure Max de Man: a man among men, an intellectual fraud, a moralistic drip. Humour, social criticism, and rich language are ingeniously brought together by Yves Petry in this compelling monologue, with its unforgettable denouement.
With Jos Vandeloo we have gained one more great and modern writer
Louis Paul Boon
Three workers in a nuclear power station are irradiated during an accident. After examination, they are placed in a separate wing of the hospital, isolated from the rest of society and doomed to die within a week. When, after a few days, one of them dies, the other two men desperately undertake an escape attempt from this terrible isolation.
Not just for those who need such tender solace but for everyone else too, young and old. Highly recommended.
Pluizuit
When Yule’s mother dies unexpectedly, everything around her feels different, sterile and cold, as if the house and everyone in it are suddenly made of glass. Only warm memories help Yule little by little to escape from her glass house full of sorrow. ‘Forever Close By’ is a book that brings warmth and comfort after the loss of a parent. The sensitive writing is strong in its simplicity, the powerful poetic sentences fitting seamlessly with the fascinating illustrations.
His new book ‘Listen’ cracks open your listening habits
Knack Focus
Did you ever listen to Hindustani Dhrupad music, a Gisalo from Papua New Guinea or the chants of the Blackfoot people? Does it mean anything to you to listen to a piece of music that lasts 639 years? Followed by the noise experiments of Maso Yamazaki? Or do you think that this is not music?
Van Der Veken’s line is so sharp that his world is beautifully streamlined.
THE NEW YORKER ON ‘FABRICA GRAFICA’
Jan Van Der Veken plunges with panache into the history and technological developments of space flight. With his fantastic retro-futurist drawings he proves himself an extraordinary illustrator with a style all his own. This nonfiction title for astronauts-to-be is once again an impressive achievement of graphic design.
It’s as if you’ve picked up a book by Patrick Modiano.
Doorbraak
‘Incomplete’ is an intimate novel about the stories we tell. Those we use to build our identities, those about origins and kinship; truth and lies; and hope and disappointment. Like a Flemish Graham Swift, travelling back and forth between sympathetic melancholy and empathetic humour, Bogaert writes about loss and longing and succeeds in making his characters into real people - vulnerable, but at the same time strong enough to withstand some friction.
The few but beautifully chosen words support the magical pictures, in exactly the way that the friends are a powerful support to each other.
Boekenzoeker
A girl looks out of the window, bored. She’s searching for something, even though she doesn’t know what. Suddenly, she hears the flap of wings. She goes outside, curious, and meets Bird and Fox.
'Fox, Bird and Me’ is a hopeful tale about the power of friendship, and it shows how we can overcome difficulties with the help of others. But it can also be read as a book that calls for a revaluation of nature and pays attention to mental wellbeing: a book about life itself.
