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.
A poetic story about grief which is nevertheless quite funny. The pictures by Sabien Clement complement Anna Vercammen’s words beautifully, and the illustrator’s elegant lines portray the queen’s slow disappearance in an original way.
Jan is nine and he’s perfectly ordinary. He would love to be special, though. Kathleen Vereecken and cartoonist Eva Mouton joined forces to create this story full of humour, in which the illustrations and the text come together to form a happy whole. This book is fresh, funny and heart-warming.
The ‘Job and the Pigeon’ books are a series of first readers about a quick-tempered boy and an assertive pigeon. Any six-year-old will immediately identify with the story, and the book is also packed with original ideas and surprises.
This enthralling novel is a daring, but successful endeavour to paint a probing psychological portrait of a complex personality. At the same time, Hemmerechts develops an intense evocation of an unusual, intriguing relationship, astonishing and sometime provocative in all its directness.
In this novel, Koubaa approaches the style and yearning of Elsschot's best work
De Groene Amsterdammer
Can we really understand the past? Why do we so readily overlook the factor of chance? This makes ‘European Birds’ a novel where the truth is literally at stake: it is about probability and chance, about letting go and the art of not knowing for sure.
With Dewulf, profundity is right on the surface. For anyone taking the trouble to look closely, it is deep enough.
Libris Literature Prize jury
'Raptures' is a comprehensive collection of published pieces by this talented observer. He aims to describe in an accessible way the enchantment he feels when looking at paintings, drawings and photographs, whether by contemporaries or old masters, or indeed at the ever-changing fortunes of his family environment.
In Lauwaert’s hands the essay has found an innovator
Koen Brams
'Perfectly Tailored'is a collection of Dirk Lauwaert’s most important writings about fashion, clothing and film costumes. He writes just as brilliantly about the hilarious aspects of a pattern as about the impudence of Helmut Newton, or about the ethereal Audrey Hepburn in a Givenchy twopiece.
Words fail me. This is a book you will never forget.
Geert Mak
If there was ever a man who rose from the ashes like a phoenix then it was the painter Felix Nussbaum. Mark Schaevers follows Nussbaum on his wanderings through the Nazi years, from Rome to the Italian Riviera, from Paris to Ostend and Brussels.
We live in the illusion we can buy anything. Also love.
Dirk De Wachter
'Love: An Impossible Longing?' is a plea to take love as it comes and behave naturally. Only then, by not forcing something, love can appear gloriously.
Verbeken brings back to life the era of the great expectations
De Volkskrant
Pascal Verbeken registers the small and the large signs of the times. He listens to a multicoloured collection of Belgians and their unique, sometimes tragic stories. ‘Grand Central Belge’ is a requiem for a divided country that does not succeed in chasing its old demons away.
A perfectly accomplished anthology of moving testimonies from literary and other sources.
Biblion
In deeply personal letters, displaying an impressive knowledge of the subject, Piet Chielens and his brother Wim correspond about the war poems of John McCrae, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and many other soldiers who fought in Flanders Fields and found comfort in writing poetry.
A beautifully written travel story, a political history and a philosophical meditation
De correspondent
In a very poetic style and with a keen eye for the unexpected detail, Peter Vermeersch wrote a compelling literary narrative about the post-war experience in former Yugoslavia.
Lucid, captivating, no breaking news but breaking insights
Humo
In 'Beyond Democracy'Luc Huyse analyses in a clearly structured exposé society to the core. Modern society has no segment left in which the market and market logic have not taken over.
Nobody has taught me as much about the euro crisis as Paul De Grauwe.
Paul Krugman
Do the financial crisis and the growing inequality create a new balance of power between the free market and the government? Are we witnessing a turnover of capitalism and does the government take over again?
Provocative and elegant, visionary and stylish. This European dares to tell the hard truths.
Chief Geopolitical Analyst for Stratfor
We, as Europeans, feel as if the future passes right by us. The crisis rages over our continent like a storm and dismantles all our certainties. Are the fundaments of Europe crumbling? And do we actually understand what is going on?
De Vlieger has explored and expanded her horizons with verve.
Jürgen Peeters
Klaar finds an old notebook in her grandfather’s handwriting and starts reading about his adventures in Canada, in 1929. She discovers that her grandfather was on the run for something and why he came back. 'Don’t Go to Canada' is an ingeniously-constructed coming-of-age novel.
A proper young adult book has no age limits and can be enjoyed by everybody. 'One is Enough' is just such a book.
De Standaard
Juliette is growing up in a musical family, but life is no picnic; after the death of her father, her mother proves demanding to live with. The latent tragedy develops inexorably. Els Beerten uses deep psychological insight to bring the affairs of Juliette and her family to life.
Nothing but superlatives. The master’s hand can once again be recognised.
Cutting Edge
While the other animals take life as it comes, the goose and his brother ask themselves questions that are sometimes bigger than themselves. Bart Moeyaert finds the perfect balance between gentle humour and taking their concerns seriously. This lends the stories a timeless and universal character, poetically worded by Moeyaert in his distinctive economical style.
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.
Rebekka has not written a joke book but an ethical argument that will blow your socks off.
Tumult.fm
‘That’s simply how it works.’ It’s a statement we all get to hear from time to time, or perhaps use ourselves. But it doesn’t satisfy Rebekka de Wit in her ‘Presentation of an Uncensored Joke Book’. An optimistic activist, De Wit expresses the need for a real conversation and an investigation of morality, in order to find a new narrative, or counter-narrative.
Boon intertwines big stories with very personal events.
Etcetera
What can pictures tell us about the lives and motives of those depicted in them, or indeed of the person pressing the shutter? Can we even reconstruct a person’s life? 'Comes On / Goes Off’ is a quest to discover the outer limits of stories and storytelling.
A play about the impact of war on individuals and their environment. In this polyphonic monologue, the author allows us to hear the voices of a range of people affected by recent and less recent conflicts.
Flanders, 1914. David, a young Belgian schoolteacher, stands before the firing squad, sentenced to death for desertion. Days earlier, he was teaching his fellow soldiers in the trenches to read and write. But when he befriended a sensitive young pupil, Marcus Verschoppen, disaster followed.
There’s a lot to laugh at in Schoofs’ world that has gone off the rails.
Knack
You won’t soon find anything as acutely absurd as the work of Bart Schoofs. Never mind though: everything is possible and there’s always a solution to be found. Tomorrow is another day.
In this book of verse, Edward van de Vendel captures fifty everyday sounds for the smallest of children, in an extremely original way. With no buttons to push, no mimicry or clichés, this beautiful book is full of original rhymes.
A chilling display of all the things people do to each other. Bogaert is not only one of the most modern but also one of the most interesting poets writing at the moment, one who gets under your skin rather than remaining at a distance, on paper.
A deceptively light story about absent parents and a lonely child
Knack
In this highly acclaimed debut, Shamisa Debroey displays a graphic maturity that is unexpected for such a young author. This poetic and nuanced portrait of a difficult parent–child relationship is a strong and exceptionally self-assured first step.
The most daring comic-book debut in Flanders in recent years
Knack
Wide Vercnocke’s poetic ode to laziness allows him to go to town with his narrative and graphic skills, making ‘My Muse Lies on the Settee’ both narcissistic and ironic, lazy and virtuoso, literary and visual. This multifaceted book is a most impressive debut.
The book grabs hold of you and does not let you go.
PlaneteBD.com
Maarten Vande Wiele adapts five short stories by Guy de Maupassant. It is no easy task to transform De Maupassant’s dark mood into an extravaganza of colours, and yet Vande Wiele succeeds with aplomb.
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.
The polder village of Doel, situated in the shadow of a nuclear reactor near the port of Antwerp, has been a pawn in the power games of successive politicians since the 1960s. Jeroen Janssen became fascinated by those who stayed behind and by their stories. ‘Doel’ is an impressive account of a personal journey of discovery in a village whose fate has long been uncertain.
Vandenbroucke’s distinctive work blends the highbrow with the low, drawing equally from Gordon Matta-Clark’s site-specific artwork and the Three Stooges’ slapstick timing. With a knowing wink at the reader, Vandenbroucke continuously uncovers something to laugh about in the stuffiness and pretentiousness of the art world.
Not only stunningly beautiful, it is also very interesting. ****
De Morgen
A boy hears a girl calling him one morning. Is it his sister, the sister in the faded photograph on the wall? This is the beginning of an unforgettable adventure. Jef Aerts and Marit Törnqvisthave created a beautiful book about death. It is emotional without being sentimental, stepping smoothly back and forth between magic and the literalness of childhood.
It starts almost imperceptibly, with something innocuous. Tommy is shy, he blushes easily. A little girl notices it, points to him and winks at Paul, the biggest bully of all. Jan de Kinder offers us a powerful story about strong children on the playground who don’t like bullying.
Rhythm and text propel you forward, leaving you breathless.
De Leeswelp
The hare, the horse, the boar and the deer run as fast and as far as they can. Their shadows run with them. They run over the plain, through the sand, through the grass.
This picture book allows even the very young to come into contact with poetic language at a high level, without it becoming inaccessible.
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.
‘Woesten’ recounts a suffocating story full of village gossip about a family in which fate strikes with a heavy hand, leaving no-one unscathed. It portrays a realistic, almost naturalistic image of a typical rural village in the early 20th century and offers a nuanced view of the psychology of intriguing characters.
A bitterly angry and amusing novel. De Coster places her protagonists on the operating table and dissects them cold-bloodedly.
Spiegel Online
The reader lands in the midst of an upper-class world teeming with dramas large and small, where love, truth and ambition are regularly at odds. ‘We and Me’ is a brilliant, astute family novel, full of intriguing characters sketched with great psychological insight and compassion. The book takes the measure of the modern European, and demonstrates the strength of family ties.
When Yannick Agnel, an Olympic champion, wants to train him, Alex can hardly believe his luck. He gives it his all, and his parents, who don’t see his talent, increasingly become an obstacle to his ambitions. Do Van Ranst sketches another dysfunctional family, and does so with panache.
While it entertains us with the strangeness of anthropomorphism, it is profoundly engaged with the strangeness of being human
The Times Literary Supplement
‘The Man I Became’ is an account written by an ape. Along with masses of fellow apes, he is plucked from a state of nature and, after a tough sea journey to the New World, subjected to a rigorous programme of civilization.
Theunissen has discovered his inner Homer for this modern Odyssey.
De Standaard
‘The Detours’ is a lavishly painted saga of a post-war family in which too much has remained unsaid. Theunissen presents unforgettable characters in search of a good life, of themselves and of a way to feel connected.
Beautiful adaptation of Stravinsky’s 'The Soldier’s Tale'
De Morgen
‘Someone’s Sweetheart’ is a fairytale in verse form, about a Russian soldier who is given two weeks annual leave from the battlefield in World War I. In the penetrating, moving text, Moeyaert continually plays with foreboding omens. The sinister atmosphere is enhanced by Korneel Detailleur’s impressive grey illustrations.
Two Belgian exiles, both called Tony Hanssen, are seeking themselves in a world that has become too big and too chaotic for everyone. One Tony is a loser with no illusions, the other Tony a high-spirited nerd. Both are hoping for salvation. ‘Fortunate Slaves’ is a pitch-black tragicomedy with unforgettable characters and dialogues, an ingenious plot and a virtuoso style.
Robijn fits his touching miniatures into a larger, meaningful story without his characters becoming puppets.
De Standaard
'The City and Time' consists of nine stories in chronological order, all of which take place in Brussels. Robijn’s characters all have difficulty getting by in life, but succeed by throwing themselves blindly into their regular activities. Until something – often love – turns up and turns everything upside down.
A small village behind the front, during World War I. While soldiers struggle to fight, life behind the front goes on. At the inn, where soldiers come to catch their breath, lives a blind girl. One day, she finds someone sitting on her bench: a black soldier, with the ‘scent of roasted nuts’.
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.
An effervescent portrait of the artistically and politically foaming city Brussels was between 1850 and 1914.
Cobra.be
Refugees and adventurers, thinkers and doers, finders and inventors washed ashore in this elegant city where life was good - ask Baudelaire, Marx, Rodin, Ensor, Multatuli and all those others, read it in the writings of Teirlinck or Van de Woestijne.
Decreus’ critical discussion of dominant market thinking in our depoliticized society is clever and provocative.
Politiek en Samenleving
Decreus sets out to subject the current political establishment to fierce criticism. He unmasks representative democracy as in truth an aristocracy and points to the incompatibility of the democratic ideal with the premises of neoliberal policies and market thinking.
Van Reybrouck manages to convince the reader that drawing lots would be an effective way to breathe new life into our enfeebled democracy.
Henriette Roland-Holst Prize jury
Van Reybrouck argues with crystal clarity that drawing lots would be an effective way to revitalize our enfeebled democracy and ensure that citizens participate once more in the social structures that shape them and their lives.
