‘What We Have Left’ by Aline Sax won De Boon 2025
What We Have Left by the Flemish author Aline Sax won De Boon for Children’s and Youth Literature 2025, the most prestigious Flemish prize for the best Dutch-language books. According to the jury, “this is a novel that does not shy away from brutality, yet resilience and an authentic voice take centre stage”.
Moving verse novel about the final days of WWII
It’s April 1945. Here and there, portraits of the Führer still hang on the walls of the ruins of Berlin, but the swastika flags are beginning to fray, and the Russians are close by. Henrike, a seventeen-year-old girl, lives with her mother and a whole host of neighbours in the cellar of their building. They are trying to survive in what remains of their city. Her younger brother still believes in victory, but she lost that hope a long time ago. When the Russians humiliate the German population by raping women and the central character is left to that same fate by her mother, she decides to flee.
Through the eyes of a German girl, Aline Sax arrestingly describes the horrors of war. She does so in short, measured, rhythmical sentences that slow the reader down and increase the impact. In filmic images, a reality unfolds that stresses the moral ambiguity of war. This haunting novel in verse looks at human beings from every angle, as cruel, courageous, cowardly, hopeful, but above all resilient.
Aline Sax offers a poignant impression of Berlin in the twilight of the Second World War, seen from the perspective of the defeated – a viewpoint rarely explored in youth literature. And what's more, it is written in free verse, a form that is quite unique in Dutch-language young adult fiction. This is a novel that does not shy away from brutality, yet resilience and an authentic voice take centre stage.The jury of De Boon for Children’s and Youth Literature
Interested?
- Read more about What We Have Left and Aline Sax
- Read an English sample of What We Have Left
De Boon
De Boon is a literary prize funded by the Flemish government for the best Dutch-language books published in Flanders and the Netherlands in 2024. Each year, the prize is awarded in two categories: one for fiction and nonfiction and one for children’s and youth literature. The laureates receive €50,000 and a custom-made ring. De Boon for Fiction and Nonfiction 2025 was awarded to 'Oroppa' by Dutch author Safae el Khannoussi.
Besides the Jury Prize, De Boon also awards a Readers' Prize in both categories. Both Readers' Prizes were presented to books by Flemish authors this year:
- The Big Chicken Book by Evelien De Vlieger & Jan Hamstra received De Boon Readers' Prize for Children's and Youth Literature 2025.
- 'The Lives of Claus' by Mark Schaevers received De Boon Readers' Prize for Fiction & Nonfiction 2025.
