World Editions brings Boekenweek back to the US, Canada, and the UK for the Second YearPlease note this page is being continually updated
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We are excited to announce the second annual International Boekenweek celebration!
In the Netherlands, Boekenweek (Book Week) is an annual celebration of literature, happening every Spring since 1935. Events are held across the country during Boekenweek, and include book signings, readings, and panel discussions. Every year, a well-known Dutch author is asked to write a novella specifically for Boekenweek, which is given out for free in bookstores to each customer who purchases a book. These novellas then act as tickets for a free train ride anywhere in the country. In 2016, World Editions author Esther Gerritsen ( Roxy, Craving) wrote the Boekenweek gift of which 600,000 copies were handed out.
Last year, we ran our first, very successful Boekenweek campaign complete with Blog Tour and three Flemish authors touring across the US.
This year, the 85th Annual Boekenweek will take place from March 7th to March 15th. This year's theme is REBELS & DISSENTERS, and our very own Esther Gerritsen's Roxy (forthcoming in the US) has been highlighted by the festival for its titular character's particular ties to that theme.
In the US and Canada, along with our counterpart in the UK and other independent presses here in the US, World Editions will be celebrating the work some of the most important contemporary and classic writers from the Netherlands recently released or forthcoming in English translation. Wat leuk!
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Where Writers Are Treated Like Movie Stars
Read this feature on Boekenweek in Lithub, written by one of our own Dutch to English translators, Michele Hutchison ( Craving, Roxy, Slaves to Fortune).
Photo: Boekenbal, 1948
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Enter our Goodreads giveaway!
Thirteen-year-old Brian lives in a trailer on a forgotten patch of land with his divorced and uncaring father. His older brother Lucien, physically and mentally disabled, has been institutionalized for years. While Lucien’s home is undergoing renovations, he is sent to live with his father and younger brother for the summer. Their detached father leaves Brian to care for Lucien’s special needs. But how do you look after someone when you don’t know what they need? How do you make the right choices when you still have so much to discover? Summer Brother is an honest, tender account of brotherly love, which will resonate with readers of Rain Man.
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Participating BookstoresFrom March 7 through March 15, visit your local bookstore and pick up a World Editions title or two. With your purchase, get a free #Boekenweek2020 tote bag or World Editions title. It's our version of the Boekenweekgeschenk, from us to you. Promotions vary by store.
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| Staff picks from Queen Anne Book Co
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Craving by Esther GerritsenTranslated by Michele Hutchison
"Adorable story! When passing on a major street in Amsterdam, Elizabeth tells her daughter that she has cancer. Coco, in an insecure relationship, feels the need to move back in with her mother. Well described characters include the ex-husband/father and stepmother. Poignant, but often funny. Really enjoyable to read."
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Ventoux by Bert WagendorpTranslated by Paul Vincent
"Great story about old and renewed friendships, and observations about life and growing up. Cycling is a central theme, including two climbs up Mont Ventoux, famous from the Tour de France, in their youth and later as they get together again. A feel-good, pleasant summer read."
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with Katherine Krige
#Boekenweek2020 #Boekenweek #DutchLit
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Two Blankets, Three Sheetswith TripFiction
#Boekenweek2020 #Boekenweek #DutchLit
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The Dutch Maiden and Mr. Miller
with Meredith Smith
#Boekenweek2020 #Boekenweek #DutchLit
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The Blessed Rita
with David's Book Blog
#Boekenweek2020 #Boekenweek #DutchLit
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Ventouxwith Lizzy Siddall
#Boekenweek2020 #Boekenweek #DutchLit
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Two Blankets, Three Sheets
with Autumn Curry
#Boekenweek2020 #Boekenweek #DutchLit
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The Blessed Ritawith Linda's Book Blog
#Boekenweek2020 #Boekenweek #DutchLit
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with Valerie Evans
#Boekenweek2020 #Boekenweek #DutchLit
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Two Blankets, Three Sheets
with David's Book Blog
#Boekenweek2020 #Boekenweek #DutchLit
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The Blessed Ritawith Lizzy Siddall
#Boekenweek2020 #Boekenweek #DutchLit
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Ventoux
with TripFiction
#Boekenweek2020 #Boekenweek #DutchLit
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The Darkness That Divides Us
with Robyn Roste
#Boekenweek2020 #Boekenweek #DutchLit
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Two Blankets, Three Sheetswith Lizzy Siddall
#Boekenweek2020 #Boekenweek #DutchLit
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The Darkness That Divides Us
with Marilyn Panton
#Boekenweek2020 #Boekenweek #DutchLit
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The Discomfort of Eveningwith Winston's Dad
#Boekenweek2020 #Boekenweek #DutchLit
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Malvaby Hagar Peeters
Translated by Vivien D. Glass
DoppelHouse Press
9780999754429
Malva, a precocious eight-year-old ghost, is running amok in the afterlife with a cadre of other lost children. She searches for her father, the famous poet Pablo Neruda, and wants him to know the details of her small, but not insignificant life.
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La Superbaby Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer
Translated by Michele Hutchison
Deep Vellum Press
9781941920220
An absolute joy to read, La Superba, winner of the most prestigious Dutch literary prize, is a Rabelaisian, stylistic tour-de-force about a writer who becomes trapped in his walk on the wild side in mysterious and exotic Genoa, centering on the stories of migration and immigration, legal and illegal, telling the story of modern Europe.
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Sleepless Nightby Margriet de Moor
Translated by David Doherty
New Vessel Press
9781939931696
A woman gets up in the middle of a wintry night and starts baking a Bundt cake while her lover sleeps upstairs. When it’s time for her to take the cake out of the oven, we have read a tale of romance and death.
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An Untouched Houseby Willem Frederik Hermans
Translated by David Colmer
Archipelago Books
9781939810069
A mesmerizing, dark meditation on the legacy of war. An interloper and opportunist makes a grand house his own in the chaos of a war-torn countryside, only to find himself involved with occupying forces and enraged locals.
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Even Nowby Hugo Claus
Translated by David Colmer
Archipelago Books
9781935744887
Hugo Claus’s poems are remarkable for their dexterity, intensity of feeling, and acute intelligence. Perhaps Belgium’s leading figure of postwar Dutch literature, Claus has long been associated with the avant-garde: these poems challenge conventional bourgeois mores, religious bigotry, and authoritarianism with visceral passion.
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Wonderby Hugo Claus
Translated by Michael Henry Heim
Archipelago Books
9780980033014
While exposing the remains of Flemish fascism twenty years after the War, Wonder tracks one man’s descent into madness. Victor, a bewildered teacher, pursues a mysterious woman to a castle in a remote village. There he finds himself trapped among a handful of desperate individuals still living out their collaboration with the Nazis.
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The Discomfort of Eveningby Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
Translated by Michele Hutchison
Faber and Faber
9780571349364
Ten-year-old Jas has a unique way of experiencing her universe: the feeling of udder ointment on her skin as protection against harsh winters; the texture of green warts, like capers, on migrating toads; the sound of 'blush words' that aren't in the Bible. But when a tragic accident ruptures the family, her curiosity warps into a vortex of increasingly disturbing fantasies - unlocking a darkness that threatens to derail them all.
A bestselling sensation in the Netherlands, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld's radical debut novel is studded with images of wild, violent beauty: a world of language unlike any other.
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The Consequencesby Niña Weijers
Translated by Hester Velmans
DoppelHouse Press
9780997818437
Meet Minnie Panis, a young and talented conceptual artist navigating love affairs, her unexpected success in the art world, and her relationship with an emotionally distant mother.
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The Republicby Joost de Vries
Translated by Jane Hedley-Prole
Other Press
9781590518533
A gripping academic novel about deception and self-deception, ambition, the love of history as entertainment, and the hunt for the perfect enemy.
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I Wishby Ingrid Godon and Toon Tellegen
Translated by David Colmer
Archipelago Books
9781939810328
Bestelling Dutch children’s author Toon Tellegen matches 33 imaginative prose-poems prompted by the statement “I wish” with luminous, old-fashioned portraits by Ingrid Godon in this beautiful, unique volume perfect for thoughtful young readers.
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Eline Vereby Louis Couperus
Translated by Ina Rilke
Archipelago Books
9780981955742
Eline Vere is a young heiress: dreamy, impulsive, and subject to bleak moods. Though beloved among her large coterie of friends and relations, there are whispers that she is an eccentric: she has been known to wander alone in the park as well indulge in long, lazy philosophical conversations with her vagabond cousin. When she accepts the marriage proposal of a family friend, she is thrust into a life that looks beyond the confines of The Hague, and her overpowering, ever-fluctuating desires grow increasingly blurred and desperate.
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The Twinby Gerbrand Bakker
Translated by David Colmer
Archipelago Books
9780980033021
When his twin brother is killed in a car accident, Helmer is obliged to give up university to take over his brother’s role on the small family farm, resigning himself to spending the rest of his days "with his head under a cow." Ostensibly a novel about the countryside, The Twin ultimately poses difficult questions about solitude and the possibility of taking life into one’s own hands. It chronicles a way of life that has resisted modernity, a world culturally apart yet laden with familiar longing.
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The Blessed Ritaby Tommy Wieringa
Translated by Sam Garrett
Scribe UK
9781911344902
What is the purpose of a man? Living in a disused farmhouse with his elderly father, Paul Krüzen is not sure he knows anymore. The mill his grandfather toiled in is closed, the glory of the Great Wars is long past, and it has been many years since his mother escaped in the arms of a Russian pilot, never once looking back. What do they have to look forward to now?
Saint Rita, the patron saint of lost causes, watches over Paul and his best friend Horseradish Hedwig, two misfits at odds with the modern world, while Paul takes comfort in his own Blessed Rita, a prostitute from Quezon. But even she cannot protect them from the tragedy that is about to unfold.
In this darkly funny novel about life on the margins of society, Dutch sensation Tommy Wieringa asks what happens to those left behind.
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| Check out all of our Dutch and Flemish titles!
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This page is maintained by Sabrina Greene, World Editions. Please send questions, suggestions, and corrections to s.greene@worldeditions.org
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