De Bezige Bij / The Busy Bee • h.deinum@debezigebij.nl & m.nagtegaal@debezigebij.nl

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Newsletter Foreign RightsDe Bezige Bij, Thomas Rap, Cargo and Balans

February 2013

Vincent Overeem – Tobi* Dark, sultry novel in the tradition of Twin Peaks

World rights: De Bezige Bij • Novel, 285 pages

In the forest close to the village where she lived, the lifeless body of Nickie is found, a seventeen-year-old girl of whom everyone speaks ill, stunningly beautiful and uncontrollable. What does fourteen-year-old Tobi have to do with it and why did he hang out with her in the weeks before her death? What did he tell her about the mother he could not let go after she died a few weeks earlier? The reader gradually discovers just how entangled their lives are.

Tobi is the subtle tale of an obsessive relationship between mother and son, and of the desperate weeks in which Tobi’s love for Nickie reaches its appalling end.

Vincent Overeem (b. 1974) has published short stories in De Gids, Tirade and NRC Handelsblad. He made his debut in late 2005 with the story collection Novembermeisjes (November Girls), which was nominated for the Gerard Walschap Literature Prize. His first novel Misfit was received very well in The Netherlands and Germany. Tobi is his second novel.

About Tobi:'As a reader you are perpetually on the edge of your seat. There are the hypnotizing sentences, there is the unease. There’s the almost breathless advance to the inescapable end. There’s the unremittingly suggestive style. Yes, this is a masterpiece.’ ***** – Het Parool‘Tobi is a test of clever, psychological chaos in which despair, guilt and confusion following the suicide of a loved one, play a major role.’ ***** – Knack‘A dark novel about growing up and about insanity, with an opening like a thriller. (...) As the novel progresses, the story takes on the character of a vortex, carrying the reader away. Overeem lets you flounder for a bit, not immediately explaining what’s going on - and that is exactly what makes his second novel so good.’ – Elsevier

De Bezige Bij / The Busy Bee • h.deinum@debezigebij.nl & m.nagtegaal@debezigebij.nl

Elisabeth Steinz – And one night* The webcam love affairs of a modern twenty-something

World rights: De Bezige Bij • Film rights sold • Novel, 240 pages

And One Night is a modern love story that takes place in between dream and reality. Isabelle’s life abruptly gathers pace when she recognizes her friend’s new lover as one of her webcam-sex friends. In the twilight zone between virtual life and the real world she can escape the horror of her father’s approaching death.

Along with this *Dickydick* she travels to Morocco in his avocado-green Mercedes, in a blind trance. In her head she is experiencing the journey her father once promised her, but which they never made. Isabelle and *Dickydick* go to the utmost extremes until stopped by life itself. And One Night is a modern fairytale played out in between fantasy and thrilling reality.

Elisabeth Steinz (b. 1980) studied Dutch and journalism. She worked as editor-in-chief and newsreader for the radio section of the Novum press bureau. And One Night is her debut.

About And One Night:‘Simply a good book for everyone.’ **** – Het Parool‘A first novel by an author who presents herself as a self-assured promise.’ *** – de Volkskrant'And One Night is a novel that raises questions, with a main character whose egocentric acts can seem terrifyingly familiar.’ – Elle‘Well-written debut in an airy, literary style, with a beautiful rendering of the sometimes rather arbitrary despair among the current generation of people in their late twenties and early thirties.’ – Opzij