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.
Radiant fiction. This essential book shines a light on personal experiences of migration in ways that illuminate and surprise.
Bernardine Evaristo
In this intriguing mosaic of ten stories Unigwe chronicles the unusual lives of a group of Nigerian immigrants who are making their way in Belgium. They all left their country in the hope of a better life, but the pain of missing Nigeria is a heavy price to pay. Readers will be moved by the realistic, recognisable characters and Unigwe’s empathetic analysis of a migrant community, the situation they fled and the disappointments in their new country.
At times poignant, at times shocking, but just as often witty enough to make you burst out laughing.
Cutting Edge
Annelies Verbekeinterweaves more than four thousand years’ worth of literature from around the world. Inspired by better and lesser known classics from before 1900, the fifteen pieces in this collection form a kaleidoscope full of interrelated moments. ‘Trains and Rooms’ is like a hall of mirrors in which new doors keep opening up into other eras and narratives. It reinforces her reputation as the ‘Queen of the Flemish short story’.
You really do want to keep on looking at his illustrations
MappaLibri
A girl searches in vain for her father. When she spots him in the distance and walks over to him, he disappears, and then appears to be waiting for her again. But as soon as she gets closer: nothing, nobody. This mysterious book with powerful monotypes addresses a topical issue: children in search of their roots and family bonds.
A philosophical story that will leave you speechless, with equally delicate illustrations
Pluizuit
A white little girl plays indoors in her safe white room and constructs a fantasy life for herself. At night she dreams of adventures in the world outside. ‘Blanca’ is a philosophical story about not being able to go out and being thrown back on your own resources, a warm ode to the imagination, dreams and desires. The sensory illustrations in soft hues show how colourful white actually is.
Wondrous. Madness in the beauty or beauty in the madness, who’s to say?
Cutting Edge
1899. Belgian Joseph Lippens travels to the Congo, where his father disappeared off the face of the earth several months earlier. In this scintillating debut, Thibau Vande Voorde shows us what he is capable of. With virtuoso control of his colour pencils, he conjures up the scorching heat and the beautiful abundance of Congo, as well as the contorted facial expressions of a man who becomes a victim of his own ambition.
It is about the pure pleasure of looking, and then looking again
De Morgen on ‘Whose Zoo?’
A playful, wordless picture book with a starring role for fruits, vegetables and insects, which encourages readers to look, search and look again like never before. Geert Vervaeke plays with simple, pure forms and vibrant colours that, when combined, produce unexpected new images. She hopes that this book will encourage children to let their imagination run wild.
Van Der Veken's line is so sharp that his world is beautifully streamlined.
THE NEW YORKER ON ‘FABRICA GRAFICA’
In ‘Ships & Boats’ we dive into the wonderful world of ships and shipping. The book includes a quirky selection from the technical aspects of ships, and is peppered with extraordinary facts and anecdotes. The playful illustrations in 'ligne claire' style and the extensive technical drawings make this book a graphic masterpiece for every captain in the making.
A moving stroll through early parenthood and all the powerful emotions that go with it
De Morgen
Having a child marks the greatest possible change to a life and ‘Never Alone Again’ aims to illuminate not just the wonder it brings but the darker side too. Ephameron describes the multiplicity of emotions upon a child's arrival not in a straightforward story but as fragmented impressions in watercolour. This creates an extraordinarily intimate atmosphere and provides an intense reading experience.
Spit set the bar high, then launched herself over it with linguistic agility and skill
De Tijd
Leo has been together with her boyfriend Simon for ten years. Their happiness is shattered after he comes home excitedly with a brand-new tattoo behind his ear. Simon’s sudden odd behaviour turns out to be the prelude to a psychotic episode, caused by a bipolar disorder. Spit convincingly portrays the oppressiveness, manoeuvrability and exhaustion resulting from life with a psychotic partner.
His crowning achievement. Olyslaegers masterfully takes us back to the time of the Great Iconoclasm and Bruegel. *****
De Standaard
During the turbulent 1560s, trade is flourishing inAntwerp and Beer’s inn becomes a refuge for freethinkers and trailblazers. Ten years later, Beer, now in Amsterdam, looks back on the events that prompted him to flee his native city. ‘Wild Woman’ is a monumental novel about the longing for unity and the discovery of an inner truth, about friendship, community, faith and betrayal. With his rich, sumptuous and debauched language, Olyslaegers drags you into the dark alleyways of the 16th century.
A young woman murders the man with whom she’s been having an affair for some time. ‘Raw and As If’ is not just a gripping ‘whydunnit’ but an expressively written psychological story about the consequences of a loveless childhood. Tack’s unemotional style builds the tension and sustains the dark world and psyche of the narrator.
A gem of a book that is as fragile and strong as her characters
The Low Countries
‘Bump’ is a poetic fable. Through the triangular relationship between the central characters, it beautifully reveals how difficult it can be to integrate other people into your own desires, and how miraculous moments of connection are. Tender, brief dialogues offer glimpses into a past marked by bereavement.
'Jam Street’ is chockful of beautiful observations and stylistic gems.
Haarlems Dagblad
‘Jam Street’ is a poetic story about a culture clash in a deprived neighbourhood in Flanders, and it is also an ode to the beauty of the banal. The novel describes the brutal and raw reality of life in the margins, yet it is soft and tender at the same time.
An atmospheric, melancholic graphic novel about growing up in the nineties *****
NRC
Gus is in his thirties when he returns to the village where he grew up. Cas and his friends are in their final year in school, balancing on the cusp of adulthood, and can’t wait to get away. Ward Zwart shows himself a master of low-key yet telling images and detailed facial expressions, rendered fully in pencil. It’s the poetry of small things that, more than anything, speaks loud and clear in the work of Zwart and Smits.
De Gryse knows how to grab a reader by the scruff of the neck
De Morgen
Marieke is the youngest of four sisters in a family with an absentee father and an unstable mother. She works in a care home, where she’s happiest in the kitchen. 'Pork Chops' a tragicomic tale about sticking up for yourself and about caring – but above all it’s an ode to comfort food.
Yet another triumphant experiment for the award-winning Timmers
New York Times
Elephant is shipwrecked, right in the middle of the ocean. Luckily he finds an island that’s just big enough to stand on. Several rescue attempts go awry, but the island becomes a wonderful place in the process. In this jolly book, Leo Timmers swaps his beloved wheeled vehicles for boats. ‘Elephant’s Island’ is captivating proof of Timmers’ skill as an illustrator and storyteller.
This collection of four short stories for children by renowned Brazilian author Clarice Lispector is bursting with quirkiness and amusing ideas. And who better to illustrate these remarkable tales than Gerda Dendooven? In Dendooven’s work it’s not just the people whose faces are full of personality – she can seemingly effortlessly imbue a chicken or a rabbit with an inner world. Her utterly unique style complements Lispector’s like no other.
Charming and written with great passion. The love of language is palpable throughout.
NRC
In ‘The Bike Book’ duo Paul de Moor and Wendy Panders invite you to take a seat on their tandem for a wild ride, showing you everything that’s beautiful about bikes along the way. With his confident language, De Moor effortlessly sweeps you up in his enthusiasm. He leaves nothing out, so you can’t help but agree with the book’s subtitle: everything about the best invention ever.
Ramos’s playful, lovely art stands strongly on its own
The New York Times on ‘Sonia Delaunay: A Life of Color’
A beautiful princess called Tourmaline is imprisoned in a tall tower. Only the bravest knight of all can free her. Knight after knight is sure that he’s the bravest, but they all fail in their quest. Luckily there’s one fearless knight who doesn’t let anything daunt him. Or should that be: daunt her? A gentle, funny and atmospheric plea for more openness and less prejudice.
Shameless locker-room banter, portrayed with impressive visual style
Cutting Edge
Simon Kennedy and Chuck Atkins are well-known TV presenters. In the course of an 18-hole round of golf, we get to know them as sexist, racist jocks who are utterly repellent in every way. Bram Algoed’s minimalist illustrations pare this portrait of toxic masculinity down to the essence. ‘Assholes’ is outrageous, repulsive, disturbing and downright hilarious.
Modest and endearing yet grandiose and awe-inspiring
Pluizuit on ‘Pigeon’
Henry has a beautiful view of nature from his window, but his room is bleak and bare. Luckily he knows how to fix this: he’ll bring some of that beauty inside. In ‘Henry’, the acclaimed illustrator duo Jacques & Lise play with concepts like ‘empty’ and ‘full’, and the pages feature real peepholes. A beautifully designed book.
The ancient Greeks didn’t have it easy. Their country seemed to be awash with magical creatures, usually with malign intentions. And they also had to fear the wrath of the gods. This book recounts all the well-known Greek myths and legends in a modern and humorous way.
A meticulously documented and beautifully illustrated biography of a fascinating figure
Mappa Libri
Paul-Gustave van Hecke (1887-1967) was a man of many talents. Fifty years after his passing, Manu van der Aa brings Tatave to life again, and with him half a century of Belgian art history.
This book is far from a dry account of the facts. This historical work is accessible to a general readership.
De Standaard
Nadia Nsayi, born in Kinshasa, but raised by adoptive parents in a provincial town in Flanders after the death of her birth father, starts doing genealogical research into her roots while at university. She discovers that her family history is closely entwined with the history of Belgium and the Congo. Apart from looking at her own development and growing awareness, Nsayi calls for decolonisation via an official apology for the colonial injustices and for decolonisation as restoration.
A book you can’t put down and that sends shivers down your spine.
De Morgen
Found among the rubble of a burnt-down old farm is the lifeless body of its owner, 84-year-old farmer Daniel. Farmer Daniel is the uncle of writer and journalist Chris De Stoop. In his familiar sober style, Chris De Stoop registers all the different aspect of this case and ends up creating a devastating literary drama.
Four books for the price of one: an adventurous travelogue, a suspenseful whodunit, a biography and a history book
Gazet van Antwerpen
Hilde Baele met Mzee Jerôme Sebasoni, a gardener, in Kigali, Rwanda. He told her his incredible life story. He claimed to have fought against the Belgians and to have been a close comrade of Che Guevara’s in the struggle to oust the Congolese dictator Mobutu. Baele roped in her illustrator friend Jeroen Janssen to help her get to the bottom of Che's guide's claims. All the powerful graphic material in this impressive book was sketched and painted on the spot by Janssen. This is a remarkable testament to an extraordinary life story.
A tender novel capturing the soberness of rural life, the daily routine and the things that are unspoken. About a subtly developing love triangle, with eye for nuance and the complexity of the multifaceted love between the characters.
A dangling rope takes us on a chase through a city in this scintillating picture book without words. It is grabbed in turn by a water ballerina, a super hero, a window cleaner, a monkey in the zoo and a bandit on the run. Where does that rope come from? In this cheerful story, Mattias De Leeuw exploits the innate flamboyance of his drawing style.
Tomorrow morning Bluebeard and his brave knights will make mincemeat of Redfang and his men. Redfang is hatching the same plan. But as the two warring bands advance towards each other, they discover that bloodshed can wait. Game on! Restricting himself to using only a four-colour ballpoint pen, Benjamin Leroy has created a high-spirited adventure in four colours.
In ‘Lightning Stone’ Johan de Boose takes the reader on a journey across the US. With his warm, affectionate pen de Boose evokes a vivid world, cleverly alternating between contemplative-philosophical and familiar, as well as striking the occasional humorous note.
A beautifully written debut about loss and (step) motherhood. With immense compassion, Van Offel draws psychological portraits that cannot be viewed independently from identity politics and the wider political situation in Israel.
The sharpest political theatre I’ve seen for a long time.
Klara
In the theatre monologue ‘MARX’, the elderly philosopher appears onstage once more. What has he been proven right about, and which things did he get wrong? The result is sparkling theatre that is thought-provoking but also funny. A combative and critical defence of freedom and human dignity.
An intelligent play about the complexity of identity
De Standaard
2015. What at first looks like an oil slick close to the cliffs turns out to be a wetsuit. Bones are sticking out of the flippers. Even with the help of the police, nobody is able to identify the corpse. Kicking off like a Scandinavian crime story, ‘The Wetsuitman’ leads from pastiche to a social drama in the ‘jungle’, the refugee camp in Calais.
A view of the world that is as warm-hearted as it is horrifying
Jury Toneelschrijfprijs
A pregnant woman fantasizes about the future life of her unborn daughter. One thing is certain: that future will be far from unproblematic. The abstract and poetic ‘Deerskin’ invites us to think about a future in which humans are no longer at the controls.
Cast-iron dialogues. Charlie’s anger is authentic and breath-taking
JaapLeest
Charlies father has left, without any explanation or goodbyes. She is furious. Not so much with her father as with her mother, who must surely have driven him away. When she discovers her father’s real situation, Charlie turns her anger on him. Everyone’s lying, Charlie thinks, and she decides to do the same. Charlie is a keen observer with a black sense of humour, and ‘Liar Liar’ is a razor-sharp portrait of a girl who knows she is being overlooked.
Right from the very first anecdote Janssen wins you over, lock, stock and barrel.
Stripspeciaalzaak
‘Posthumous’ is an imaginative ode to the life and music of Franz Schubert. We encounter the young composer on his deathbed, where colourful, feverish dreams take over. We dive into some of Schubert’s most famous songs, in which he himself plays the leading part. Every song has its own background colour and is based on both facts and fantasy. A magisterial collaboration.
After her house in Paris has burned down, killing her lover, Madame Catherine moves to her country home, where she begins to be consumed by nightmares. A presence watches her, follows her, and touches her in the night. Catherine gradually loses her mind. In this idiosyncratic version of ‘The Horla’ by Guy de Maupassant, Maarten Vande Wiele ably allows suggestion to do its work.
Incredibly carefully thought-out, refined, perfectionistic and subtle, but also unbearable and heart-breaking
BRUZZ
In contrast to his comic book heroes, Aaron lacks a talent for witty one-liners, breath-taking courage and a woman in need of rescue. As the summer slowly passes, he is forced to confront something he would rather not face. Ben Gijsemans’ drawings are meticulously detailed, and in their sometimes slow-motion narrative rhythm they perfectly portray Aaron’s struggle with his feelings. A beautiful but painful and subtle portrait.
The problems caused by the corona and climate crises are forcing us all to adapt to a society which has changed beyond all recognition. But they can also be used as an opportunity to make different choices. Where would we like to take our economy? How should we relate to one another and to the environment? And what is the effect of this ‘new normal’ on our sense of wellbeing?
A clear and accessible book written with children in mind
De Morgen
In this fun looking book the authors take an accessible approach to children’s most frequently asked questions about microbes, bacteria and viruses – the kinds of questions we are all preoccupied with in this era dominated by the Corona crisis. Sebastiaan Van Doninck’s illustrations are cheerful, colourful and fun.
Each of the observations in this book reflects Brijs’ passion for flora and fauna, his curiosity about the unknown and his hunger for knowledge. Despite the sense of decline, Brijs also makes room for observations that demonstrate that with minimal effort, judicious use of knowledge and lots of good will conservation is certainly possible.
‘Reports from the Void’ is not a novel but an ego document: a collection of excerpts from letters and diary-style notes. Right from page one we realise that the author is not in a good place. We only find out why at the end. Until then, Verhulst gives us a bleak glimpse of his path to self-destruction.
It’s bedtime for seven young penguins, but they don’t fancy going to sleep at all. They want to play in the snow. When a red thread twirls past, their curiosity is piqued. A playful, accessible book to read at bedtime to adventurous and curious minds. Wide-awake toddlers everywhere will recognize themselves in this book!
This nonfiction book plunges us into the intriguing world of secret agents around the globe. From an overview of famous spies and fancy gadgets to tips to kickstart your own career as a spy. The imaginative and atmospheric illustrations complement the text and make 'Espionage' a gorgeous book for readers of all ages.
This is an unassuming and tender tale that gives a voice to birth mothers, who are rarely heard. The book is strikingly minimalist, with just a little text and a small illustration on each page. A book about the powerful bond between parent and child, about taking your distance, and about unconditional love.
Two dogs are sitting quietly in Brasserie Bulldog. Bad weather is forecast and it’s not long before the wind starts to cause chaos in their corner of the brasserie. For goodness sake, who left that door open?With his own unique collage style, Koen Van Biesen presents a lively new story full of details that catch the eye only after several readings.
Ten teams line up at the start of the Flying Competition for Birds. They’re all bursting to win, except that Team Owl has overslept yet again. In thirteen large, detailed landscapes illustrator Sebastiaan Van Doninck takes the reader along for a thrilling contest full of humorous details. In the bright watercolours we discover the real story of the race.
As if Mark Oliver Everett of Eels tried his hand at writing fiction.
Cutting Edge
In eleven short stories, Van Thuyne introduces the reader to her highly authentic and eccentric universe. She creates a universe peopled by characters who are slowly losing their grip on reality. Her vivid and filmic stories are exercises in controlled madness. ‘We, the Foam’ is highly unconventional and truly remarkable.
Marcel returns to his grandmother Andrea’s house, hoping to uncover the secrets of the past. He wants to know why he was named after his grand uncle Marcel, Andrea’s brother, who died on the Eastern Front.
