Rights list - Spring 2011

Translation rights De Bezige Bij London 2011, contact [email protected] © text De Bezige Bij

content

fiction

Kees van Beijnum A Kind of FamilyPeter Buwalda Bonita AvenueJessica Durlacher The HeroJessica Durlacher Arthuro d’AlbertiIris Koppe The Man with the ClawsRik Launspach Man Girl DeadAlma Mathijsen In Everything, CarmenMargriet de Moor The Painter and the GirlMarcel Möring Mountain of ChasteningNazmiye Oral ZehraYves Petry The Virgin MarinoAnil Ramdas BadalMaartje Wortel Half-human

non-fiction

Bart Chabot Up on the Hilton Roof Jan Drost The Romantic Misconception Tom Egbers Rory Storm Roel Janssen Dirty Money Auke Kok Holleeder. The Early YearsBerthe Meijer Life after Anne FrankDavid van Reybrouck Congo. A History

thrillers

Milou van der Will Red LightPeter de Zwaan Fireworks

De Bezige Bij Publishers • Thomas Rap Publishers • Cargo PublishersVan Miereveldstraat 1 • nl-1071 dw Amsterdam • Postbus 75184 • nl-1070 ad Amsterdam

The Netherlands • tel +31 20 305 9810 • fax +31 (0)20 305 9824

Foreign Rights Contact: Hayo Deinum via [email protected]

publishing house de bezige bijwww.debezigebij.nl

translation rights london 2011


Over 35,000 copies sold • Shortlisted for the ako Literature Prize 2010 • World rights: De Bezige Bij • Novel, 480 pages

In the 1980s, Teun Draaijer and his older brother suffer under the special position their family oc-cupies among the town’s boorish inhabitants. They are regularly the butt of exclusion and harassment. Each in his own way, the boys do their best to survive at school and on the street. But then Teun’s brother turns his back on the ideals and expectations of his parents, and their family life is disrup-ted. Teun’s position becomes unbearable: should he take sides with his brother, or with his parents? Years later, Teun and his young son return to the town where he spent his youth. It turns out not to be a sentimental journey. The fateful night on which the family conflict finally came to a head has never stopped pursuing him.

kees van beijnum (b. 1954) is the author of suc-cess ful novels such as Poet on Zeedijk (1995), The Arrangement (1998) and Oysters at Nam Kee (2000), which also received the F. Bordewijk Prize. His former novel is the bestselling Paradiso.

‘A compelling novel with excellent scenes.’ – de volkskrant

‘Poignant and forceful.’ – vrij nederland

‘An intriguing novel.’ – gpd

kees van beijnum a kind of family (Een soort familie) * New novel by best selling author of Oysters at Nam Kee and Paradiso


Over 15,000 copies sold • Sold to Rowohlt (Germany), Actes Sud (France), Mondadori (Italy) and Salamandra (Spain) • Shortlisted for the Libris Literature Prize 2011 • Longlisted for the Academica Debut Prize 2011 • Longlis-ted for the Dutch Gold Dagger Award 2011 • English sample translation available • World rights: De Bezige Bij • Novel, 544 pages

Joni Sigerius, stepdaughter of the rector of a Uni-versity, and her boyfriend Aaron, run a little business that she prefers to keep secret from her dynamic and brilliant father. It is in the year that a fireworks catastrophe vanishes a complete residential quarter in the city and that explo-sion takes place within the family as well. Not only do Joni and Aaron find themselves in dire straits, but it is also in this same summer that Sigerius Sr.’s only real son is released from prison. Only eight years later – by which time Joni is running a million-dollar business in Los Angeles – does Aaron find out what was really going on in 2000.

peter buwalda (b. 1971) worked as a journalist and editor for the literary pop music magazine Wahwah. His stories have been published in Hollands Maandblad and De Gids.

‘Already in the first chapter Buwalda portrays the convin-cing character of a cad with a turn for mathematics and an obsession for judo… Buwalda has an easy going style, clear and precise, and completely unpretentious.’– de groene amsterdammer

‘Outstanding read. Bold language and content. Bonita Avenue is a book which deserves a large audience.’ – hp/de tijd

peter buwalda bonita avenue* An impressive, hefty debut novel about the downfall of an ambitious family


Over 40,000 copies sold • Sold to Diogenes Verlag (Germany) • Winner of the Opzij Litera-ture Prize 2010 • Longlisted for the Dutch Gold Dagger Award 2011 • English sample translation and synopsis available • Great reviews in the Dutch press and praised as Durlacher’s “best book so far” (de Volkskrant) • World rights: De Bezige Bij • Novel, 384 pages

While out jogging, the driver of a car knocks protagonist Sara to the ground. This violence takes her back to the mysterious monologues which her father held in German right before his death. Monologues about his own mother, who was murdered during the war and about whom she knows almost nothing.The past is a venomous thing; when Sara’s son, who is att-ending college in America, announces his plans to join the Marines and go to Afghanistan, she tries to stop him cost what may. But then she is confronted, along with her hus-band and their daughter, with a follow-up to the violence. Revenge seems to be the only possible answer, and Sara decides to take the law into her own hands. Her grandmo-ther’s secrets suddenly seem very timely indeed.

jessica durlacher (b. 1961) is the author of bestsellers such as: The Conscience, The Daughter and Emoticon. She has published three novel-las during the last three years: Arthuro d’Alberti, Writers! and What Happened to Cathy M.?.

‘It’s actually a marvel and certainly a virtue of Durlacher’s writing that all the complicated storylines come together neatly at the end. The Hero is no ordinary, unambiguous novel. It’s a war book, a family saga and a thriller rolled into one.’ – nrc handelsblad

‘As they should in any thriller, all the pieces of the puzzle come together right at the end, but Durlacher lifts her no-vel to a higher plane by subtly asking what the maximum longevity of the good is – in today’s world too.’ – hp/de tijd

jessica durlacher the hero (De held)* A modern-day novel about violence and revenge. Thrilling, filmic and full of momentum.


World rights: De Bezige Bij • Novella, 128 pages

Music played a major role in Jessica Durlacher’s childhood. Her parental home rang with sym-phonies, piano concertos and quartets. For a long time, however, the fact that Jessica’s grandfather Arthur – killed in Bergen-Belsen in 1945 – was an opera singer seemed unworthy to mention. Until one day she realizes that classical song is the only genre to which her family never lis-tened. In the hundred-odd pages of Arthuro d’Alberti, the tragic story of Arthur Durlacher unfolds, a man who ex-perienced his finest hour as a vocalist in the camp Wester-bork. Only in the final pages does Jessica Durlacher reveal the horrible reason behind the taboo on song in her family.

jessica durlacher (b. 1961) is the best selling author of The Conscience, The Daughter, Emoti-con and The Hero, which appeared in the autumn of 2010. She has published two other novellas during the last three years: Writers! and What Happened to Cathy M.?.

What the press had to say about The Daughter:‘With great virtuosity, a complex story is told about vic-tims and perpetrators, guilt, deceit and the longing for examples and heroes.’ – frankfurter allgemeine zeitung

jessica durlacher arthuro d’alberti* An attractive re-issue of the compelling search for a grandfather


World rights: De Bezige Bij • Novel, 256 pages, April 2011

In The Man with the Claws, two young women become involved in a student movement sur-rounding a controversial politician nicknamed The Lobster. After a failed attempt to set up a brokerage in public-transport passes, the girls find themselves deeply in debt and vulnerable to extortion. They come in contact with a pro-fessor who has a score to settle with The Lobster. In their naïveté, they barely realize the kind of web in which they have become entangled. The Man with the Claws is a stun-ning portrait of the newest generation of students in poli-tically turbulent times, but above all a moving story about a young woman in search of herself.

iris koppe (b. 1985) writes short stories, columns and articles for various Dutch daily newspapers and weeklies, and has produced radio programs and short literary films. In 2005 and 2006 she wrote a serial for the NRC Handelsblad daily pa-per about Rosiri, the daughter of baby boomers. The serialized story was published in book form by De Bezige Bij and the film rights have been sold.

What the press had to say about Rosiri:‘This debut is a very promising one.’ – de volkskrant

‘Koppe can write, she possesses humor and a unique view of the world.’ – hp/de tijd

‘Koppe is at her best when she stays far away from the poetic and focuses on trivial matters, a feature that makes her characters extremely human.’ – de groene amsterdammer

iris koppe the man with the claws (De man met de schaar)

* A chronicle of our age, in the tradition of Van der Heijden’s Lawyer to the Punks


First print run 50,000 copies • World rights: De Bezige Bij • Novel, 400 pages, September 2011

At the start of the final decade of the last cen-tury, sometime drug dealer Amadeus Dynk-hirst – while a university student of linguistics – becomes convinced that Dutch is a useless lan guage. It is chock full of superfluities and misunderstandings, and therefore a perfect re-flection of human nature. Amadeus goes in search of a more direct form of communication, and be-comes enchanted by Tatja, a fellow student from Afghani-stan who fled at the age of eight from the civil war raging in that country.Seventeen years later, as the inventor of a revolutionary computer-translation program, he is recruited by the nato. Against his will, he becomes involved in a number of sha-dy operations in Afghanistan and stumbles upon evidence of an age-old struggle between East and West – starting with the siege of Troy and which is still unsettled. Man Girl Dead is a whirlwind novel about a woman, a senseless war and an ingenious computer program.

rik launspach (b. 1958) is a writer, actor and dramaturge. In 1993 he won the Golden Calf Award for his role in the film Oeroeg. His nove-listic debut, 1953, about the disastrous flooding in the southern Netherlands more than half a century ago, appeared in 2009. More than 100,000 copies of that book have been sold and it has been made into a successful movie by Ben Sombogaart.

On 1953:‘Launspach has done his research well and portrays the natural violence, the urge and the struggle to survive, evo-catively and compellingly.’ – trouw

‘Launspach has found the right tone for such a major theme. Dramatic episodes are interspersed with understa-ted, often humorous passages… The heartrending and ex-citing quest forms the novel’s climax… described so glo-wingly and compellingly that you believe it in an instant.’ – nrc handelsblad

‘An exciting and moving book. To read is to enjoy and to shiver.’ – het parool

rik launspach man girl dead (Man meisje dood)* Once again, best-selling author Launspach has written a book too exciting to put down.


World rights: De Bezige Bij • Novel, 240 pages, September 2011

Like her mother and aunts, Carmen loves life. When she meets Kees, the heavens open, “I’m floating in a swimming pool full of strawber-ries that taste more and more like apple pie with every bite.” When Kees’s love dies, he takes with him all things good, and the final rainbows, the dip dabs and moonstars fall from her mouth. “Sometimes I’m afraid to remember. Recent studies show that brain cells in which certain moments are stored sof-ten when you think back on them. Soft. When something softens, it can become distorted. That’s how it works with science. That’s why I don’t want to look over my shoulder too often. Everything needs to stay the way it is.”After a few confusing days, however, she makes a decision. She’s not exactly sure why, not quite yet, but she has de-cided that Kees must be punished. That is the only thing that will calm her down. Alma Mathijsen follows Carmen as she carries out her plan, and thanks to her flowing style and rich imagination she keeps the reader riveted to her moving story all the way to the end.

alma mathijsen (b. 1984) is a writer and visual artist. At the age of eighteen she began writing for the young people’s website “Spunk.nl”. She formed part of the columnists’ duo Fanny & Alma in the Dutch daily Het Parool. She has written two plays and a collection of short sto-ries. She studied creative writing for a semester at the Pratt Institute in New York. In 2011 she graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy with a degree in Image & Language.

alma mathijsen in everything, carmen (Alles is Carmen) * Sparkling novelistic debut by a playful narrative talent


Over 30,000 copies sold • Sold to Hanser Verlag (Germany), Maren Sell (France), Neri Pozza (Italy), Pistorius (Czech Republic), Folio (Ukraine), Turbine Forlaget (Denmark) and Beletrina (Slovenia) • Nominated for the Opzij Literature Prize 2010 • Longlisted for the Li-bris Literature Prize 2011 • Full German trans-lation available • World rights: De Bezige Bij • Novel, 254 pages

It is May 3, 1664, the day that an eighteen-year old girl from Denmark is publicly garrotted on the Dam in Am-sterdam. Half the city has turned out to see the execution. The painter of the novel’s title has no desire to attend. His thoughts are occupied by his recently deceased wife and an important canvas which he has set up and for which he has bought the materials that same morning: red and golden pigments. Later that day he hears from his son the grisly details of the girl’s last moments, and he rows to the place where she has been hung.

margriet de moor (b. 1941) is one the most important Dutch female authors. First Grey, then White, then Blue won the ako Literature Prize in 1992. Her work has been translated into 24 languages. The Painter and the Girl is her first novel with De Bezige Bij.

‘She writes lyrical prose, and her stories about life are quiet and full of beauty.’ – Marcel Reich-Ranicki

‘Margriet de Moor sketches the philosophical ferment lightly but effectively, giving just the right amount of poli-tical and historical detail.’ – new york times

‘Here a storyteller succeeds in bringing across the unsayable in a mild and melancholy fashion.’ – die zeit

On The Painter and the Girl:‘An extremely rich novel on death, imagination and eternity.’ – nrc handelsblad

margriet de moor the painter and the girl (De schilder en het meisje)

* On an unfortunate girl and a man unable to express his true feelings; the brilliant painter Rembrandt


First print run 10,000 copies • His previous novel Dis has been sold to Harper Collins (us) and Luchterhand (Germany) • Translation rights: A.P. Watt • Novel, 416 pages, April 2011

It is the hottest summer in a century, and Marcus Kolpa spends a few wakeful nights thinking back on his own life and those of the people around him. He is approaching sixty; along with his daughter, he has retreated to a huge mansion in the woods. There Kolpa unravels the secret life of his mo-ther, and muses over the left-wing violence of the 1970s and the conspiracy in which he once unwittingly played a part. He frets over the only novel he ever wrote, the book that not only made him wealthy, but cost him his reputation as well.Mountain of Chastening is part two of the trilogy that began with Dis. It is the work of a writer consistently building an oeuvre, but – although everything in Möring’s books is con-nected to everything else – this novel with its allusions to literature, philosophy and history can stand alone.

marcel moring's (b. 1958) novels include Men-del (published in 1991 and awarded the Geertjan Lubberhuizen Prize), The Great Longing which was published in 1992 and received the ako

Literature Prize, In Babylon (published in 1997 and awarded the Belgian Golden Owl Award) and Dis (published in 2006, awarded the F. Bordewijk Prize and long-listed for the Libris Literature Prize and the ako Literature Prize). He has also published essays, short stories and

novellas, one of which – The Dream Room – was nomina-ted for the Impac Dublin Literary Award. His work has been translated into fifteen languages.

What the press had to say about Dis:‘Masterful control of the language. Brilliant, overwhel-ming, daring, cheeky.’ – de groene amsterdammer

‘Magnificent.’ – the times

marcel moring mountain of chastening (Louteringsberg)

* Grand novel by a natural-born storyteller

..

..


World rights: De Bezige Bij • Novel, 240 pages, May 2011

The time of the big summer fires has arrived, and in a little Turkish coastal village the com-munity is startled by the arrival of young stran-ger – a child who calls herself Zehra. No one knows where she comes from, and the villagers keep a fearful eye on the girl. After a few days of begging, Zehra takes refuge with Havva, the woman who performs the funeral ablutions in the village. Havva is generally respected as a wise woman with super-natural powers. Before long, Havva discovers that Zehra carries a secret with her, and is tormented by terrible nightmares from her past.

nazmiye oral (b. 1969) is an actress who has played for main theatre groups in The Nether-lands. She has also appeared in TV series and in films. Oral wrote one of the Veiled Monologues, in which she also performed. She writes a regular column for the de Volkskrant daily newspaper.

nazmiye oral zehra* An intense debut about the inner strength of a damaged child


Shortlisted for the Libris Literature Prize 2011 • English sample translation available • World rights: De Bezige Bij • Novel, 304 pages

A man anaesthetizes another man, amputates his penis, slashes his throat and keeps the body in the freezer, using it to abate his hunger in the weeks to come. And then to think that the victim had given his permission for all this beforehand.When Yves Petry heard about this real-life story, he decided to write a book about it. Not so much to recon-struct the facts, but to find out why this news report shoc-ked him so deeply. The result of his research is found in The Virgin Marino. In his inimitable style, Petry lets us penetrate into the mind of the killer through the posthumous vision of the victim, and we discover things we have never read or heard anywhere else.

yves petry (b. 1967) studied mathematics and philosophy and is the author of four well-re-ceived novels. His previous work, The Lagger, won the bng New Literature Prize and the Fle-mish Brabant Prize.

‘One of the most striking voices in the new generation of Flemish writers.’ – de morgen

About The virgin Marino:‘The virgin Marino is an extraordinary novel, both intel-ligent and bewildering.’ – knack

yves petry the virgin marino (De maagd Marino)* We are so heavily endowed with brains that nonsense becomes inevitable


World rights: De Bezige Bij • Novel, 416 pages

Badal’s marriage is over and his career is on the rocks. He looks back on a life as essayist and journalist in a multicultural society, and on his difficult relationship with foreigners on the one hand, and white intellectuals on the other. His honesty, which sometimes assumes hysterical proportions, often alienates others. Badal becomes isolated and takes to the bottle. Meanwhile, society has changed and the issues he once wrote about seem obsolete. The discussions he prompted have been silenced. Badal is a fantastic story about a man who gradually loses his sense of social engagement and is forced to invent himself anew.

anil ramdas (b. 1958) is a journalist and has written short stories and a novella. He has spent a great deal of time in India and Paramaribo. Concerning those stays he wrote When Love is Gone, Life Goes On, Letters from India and Para-maribo. The happiest town in the jungle. Badal is his novelistic debut.

On Badal:‘His prose is stylish and smooth, his choice of words is rich and to the point, often witty with beautiful anecdotes.’ – het parool

What the press has to say about Ramdas’ essays: ‘A keen-witted writer. Devilishly well-formulated, stimula-ting and intelligent.’ – trouw

‘Takes a shot at the impossible. A true balancing act.’ – vrij nederland

‘Utterly fascinating.’ – hp/de tijd

anil ramdas badal* Grand novelistic debut in the tradition of Salman Rushdie and V.S. Naipaul


World rights: De Bezige Bij • Novel, 192 pages, September 2011

A Mexican living in Los Angeles becomes in-volved in a serious traffic accident. The victim, an 18-year-old girl, has to have her leg ampu-tated. This serves as starting point for a series of events both dramatic and hilarious, as the Mexican and the girl are driven into each other’s arms by the forces of fate. But what seems at first to be the start of a beautiful romance, leads to a start-ling and sinister conclusion. Half-human is the story of two young people forced to survive in a cold-hearted metropolis. With a striking mix-ture of distance and empathy, Maartje Wortel describes these wandering souls, at the mercy of their own and each other’s obsessions.

maartje wortel (b. 1982) studied Image & Language at Amsterdam’s Rietveld Academy. In 2007 she won the Write Now! story contest, and her collection of short stories This is Your House received the Anton Wachter Prize for best literary debut.

What the papers had to say about This is Your House:‘Mildly absurd, comic and sometimes caustic and un-ashamedly cruel: Wortel’s style of storytelling is remi-niscent of Arnon Grunberg.’ – de volkskrant

‘Wortel has a distinctively personal voice, in which sobriety and melancholy jockey for position. A fascinating collec-tion.’ – gooi- en eemlander

‘A tone all her own, a voice unlike anything else in contem-porary prose.’ – Maarten ’t Hart

maartje wortel half-human (Half mens)* Novelistic debut by the winner of the 2010 Anton Wachter Prize


Includes an exclusive interview with Bono on Herman Brood • World rights: De Bezige Bij • Biography, 660 pages

Everyone knows who Herman Brood was, but few people really knew him. One of those cho-sen few was Bart Chabot. He spent years close to his friend – at his home, on the street, on the road, in the theater – and wrote four books about him, which together form compelling documentation of the adventures of Holland’s only real rock ’n’ roll hero.The high points from those books have now been collected in one hefty volume. This lively monument to a phenome-non deals with all facets of Herman Brood: the musician, the painter, the poet, the performer, but also the son, the husband, the father and the unruly child who refused to grow up.

bart chabot (b. 1954) is a poet, writer and biographer. He received the Johnny van Doorn Prize in 2007. Last year, along with Jan Mulder and Remco Campert, he toured the theaters of Holland with the production Tot Zoens.

‘The hilarious anecdotes and conversations result in a book that is unique in international rock literature.’– de volkskrant

bart chabot up on the hilton roof* A fond, admiring and frank portrait of Holland’s only real rock ’n’ roll hero


World rights: De Bezige Bij • Non-fiction, 320 pages

The Romantic Misconception is no book for the cynical. Based on philosophers and writers such as Plato, Schopenhauer, Stendhal, Nietzsche, Saul Bellow and Amos Oz, Jan Drost shows how various ideas about love and romance drift into our minds and make an impact there, for better or for worse. Romantic ideals, power, jea-lousy, sex, adultery, faithfulness – all are dealt with here. Our rational mind can be applied in the service of our ca-pacity to love, for example by unmasking romantic ideals that obstruct loving or make it impossible altogether. Too much love is wasted on romanticism and misconceptions. Drost is convinced that our way of thinking influences our emotions and actions – and that thinking differently can lead to acting differently. We are freer than we might sup-pose. And we can be so much better, so much lovelier, also when it comes to love. Particularly when it comes to love.

jan drost (b. 1975) is a writer and philosopher. He lives and works in Amsterdam. Drost teaches at Amsterdam College, where he specializes in cultural philosophy, and the philosophy of love in particular. Jan Drost regularly writes columns for nrc.next and De Groene Amsterdammer.

jan drost the romantic misconception. a different perspective on love

(Het romantisch misverstand. Anders denken over liefde) * About romantic ideals, sex, jealousy and faithfulness


Published fourty years after Rory Storm’s death • World rights: De Bezige Bij • Biography, 224 pages • August 2012

Rory Storm becomes frontman of a rock ’n’ roll band, Rory Storm and The Hurricanes. The Beatles, who play together with The Hurrica-nes in Hamburg alternating sets, are friends of Rory’s and they admire him. They are regular vi-sitors at Rory’s home on Broad Green Road. Iris Caldwell, Rory’s sister, is Paul McCartney’s girl-friend.In 1962, John Lennon and Paul McCartney ask Ringo Starr, who is Rory’s drummer, to join The Beatles. Ringo agrees, and that’s the the end for Rory and his Hurricanes. Rory flees from Liverpool where he is constantly reminded of what might have been, but never was. He spends some time in Benidorm as a waterski-instructor, before he drives his white Chevrolet Impala up to Amsterdam to start a new life as a deejay. While in Holland he receives a te-legram, the contents of which are dramatic. He returns to Liverpool. This will eventually lead to his mysterious death, a few months later.

Rory Storm. King of Liverpool, Dethroned by The Beatles describes the rise of a local legend who had everything to become a big star. However, he remains practically unknown outside Liver-pool. By the people of Merseyside he is never forgotten.

tom egbers is a journalist and writer from Amsterdam. He has been a presenter for Dutch television over the past twenty years. His book The Black Meteor (De Zwarte Meteoor), about the first black football player in Holland, was succesfully adapted for the screen.

tom egbers rory storm. king of liverpool, dethroned by the beatles

* The fateful story of a man destined to become famous©

Pho

to R

ory

Stor

m b

y As

trid

Kirc

hher

r


World rights: De Bezige Bij • Non-fiction, 240 pages

In the early 17th century, the Dutch Republic was the cradle of modern financial capitalism. It esta-blished the first stock company – the Dutch East Indies Company – the first stock exchange and the first clearing bank, the Amsterdam Wisselbank. Less known is that the Netherlands also was a pioneer in financial scandals and speculation. The Dutch ‘tulip mania’ of 1637 is well known as the first financial bubble in history. Also, the first manipulation of the money market took place in Antwerp in the 16th cen-tury. In the 17th century, the first short seller was a Dutch merchant who was dismayed with the results of the East Indies Company and the first stock market crash in history took place in Holland as well. In 1763, the first European banking crisis originated in Amsterdam.Dirty Money describes these and other financial upheavals that have taken place in the Netherlands from the early 14th century till 2009.In the introduction, the book links historic scandals and bubbles to the current financial crisis.

roel janssen (b. 1947) is a former financial journalist for NRC Handelsblad. He also writes thrillers, of which The Tenth Wife won the Dutch Golden Dagger in 2007.

‘A stunning collection of roguery in the world of big mo-ney, written in such a catchy way that you want to keep on reading.’ – Willem Vermeend (former Minister of Social Affairs and Employment)

‘A motley crew of speculators, frauds and other resourceful people in finances, passes by in highly entertaining anec-dotes…’ – gpd

roel janssen dirty money* Financial scandals and speculation in Dutch history


Film rights sold • World rights: De Bezige Bij • Biography, 272 pages

How did “Wimpie”, from Amsterdam’s wor-king-class Jordaan district, become Holland’s most notorious criminal? Why did he kidnap Freddy Heineken? Auke Kok has written a mas-terful account that takes you back to Holleeder’s youth and the story of his father, who worked for … Heineken.

auke kok (b. 1956) is historian, writer, journa-list and columnist for Het Parool and Vrij Ne-derland. He previously published The Betrayer – Life and Death of Anton van der Waals, War Love and Ballamorous.

‘A colourful portrait of the life of the young Holleeder and the part of Amsterdam he grew up in.’ – nrc handelsblad

‘Well written and richly documented.’ – het parool

auke kok holleeder. the early years (Holleeder. De jonge jaren) * The new bestseller by Auke Kok about the early years of

Willem Holleeder, Holland’s most notorious criminal.


Over 10,000 copies sold • Full English trans-lation available • Sold to Apple Books (Korea) and Epocha (Czech Republic) • World rights; De Bezige Bij • Autobiography, 270 pages

A great deal has been written about the Second World War, but not about what such a war does with the life of a person who, like Berthe Meijer, survived concentration camp Bergen-Belsen as a child. Sixty-five years after the liberation, she looks back on a turbulent life that often coincided with major historical events. Particularly moving are her memo-ries of the Frank family: Anne, Margot and their parents.Anne, who even in the concentration camp told stories to the younger children to keep their spirits up. Each chapter deals with traumatic experiences, described in a strikingly light-footed tone in which irony and even cheerfulness preclude all traces of the maudlin. A youth in an orpha-nage, the search for personal identity, marriage, mother-hood and the search for missing pieces of the past charac-terize the life of a personality that has retained its power in spite of everything. Meijer portrays her dynamic life with a light, clear pen, making her memoirs read like a novel.

berthe meijer wrote culinary columns for the Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad, made TV docu-mentaries, radio programs and wrote monthly culinary articles for a host of publications. She is married to the well-known concert pianist and author Gary Goldschneider. The couple di-vide their time between The Netherlands and France.

‘Touching memoires by Berthe Meijer, who survived Ber-gen-Belsen.’ – trouw

‘Moving memoirs.’ – nrc handelsblad

‘She describes it all with a certain distance and reflective-ness that reveals wisdom. This makes the emotion all the more intense for the reader; highly recommended.’ – niw

berthe meijer life after anne frank (Leven na Anne Frank)

* A compelling portrait of an uncompromising life


Over 175,000 copies sold • Sold to Ecco/Har-per Collins (us), 4th Estate (uk), Font Forlag(Norway), Suhrkamp (Germany), Natur och Kultur (Sweden) and Actes Sud (France) • Winner of the ako Literature Prize, the Libris History Prize and the Jan Greshoff Prize • En-glish proposal and sample chapter available • World rights: De Bezige Bij • Non-fiction, 550 pages

David Van Reybrouck begins his gripping account of hope and madness in the 1870s and chronicles the pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial era up to 2010, the fiftieth an-niversary of Congo’s independence. His vivid narrative zooms in on the impact of the slave trade and the late-nine teenth century rubber boom, presents lively portraits of Belgian colonization, the struggle for independence, Lu-mumba’s tragic life and Mobutu’s dictatorship, and details the causes of the war that has raged between 1996 and the present, the deadliest conflict since the Second World War. Congo. A History is based on little-known archival sources and extensive travelling in Central-Africa. The hundreds of interviews which Van Reybrouck conducted both in the slums of Kinshasa and in the villages of the interior, as

well as in the African diaspora of Europe and China, lend a unique dimension to a rich and convoluted history.

david van reybrouck (b. 1971) is a journalist, a literary non-fiction writer, a novelist, a poet and a playwright. Many of his books were nomina-ted and have won literary prizes. His work has been translated into French (Actes Sud), Afri-kaans (Protea) and Hungarian (Gondolat). He

lives in Brussels.

‘Sublime… monumental… virtuoso. This literary non-fiction is more thrilling than a novel can be.’ – nrc handelsblad

‘Accurate, renewing, well balanced. This book gives a lot of room to the Congolese experience of the past… It makes it an excellent read.’ – de standaard

‘It’s raining Congo books. But this one outclasses all com-petition in a spectacular way: it’s more important, more in-telligent, written better, yes, even thicker than all others… An incredible tour de force.’ – humo

david van reybrouck congo. a history (Congo. Een geschiedenis) * The fate of one of the world’s most devastated countries.


10,000 copies sold • World rights: De Bezige Bij • Thriller, 352 pages

Roos and her daughter Evie have a knack in common: they’re both attracted to the wrong men. But where Roos always got away with only a bit of unpleasantness, her daughter walks into the trap. Evie falls victim to a gang of “lover boy” pimps, and ends up working as a prosti-tute. Roos and Boris, Evie’s father, both try in their own ways to save their daughter. But driven by mis-trust and the fear of betrayal, they merely get in each other’s – and the police’s – way. When their youngest daughter, Tessa, becomes dangerously involved in the situation as well, they have to work together to save their family.Meanwhile Evie descends deeper and deeper into a spiral of violence, abuse and murder. She fears for her own life. And for that of her loved ones.

milou van der will (b. 1986) studied commu-nications and is a reporter for the daily newspaper Metro. She is specialized in issues related to lover boy pimps. While researching Red Light, she spo-ke with victims, social workers and culprits.

‘A book which is exciting and at the same time shows how difficult it is to eliminate forced prostitution.’ – gpd

milou van der will red light (Rood licht) * Convincing debut about the power of love and at the same time about its destructive aspects.


World rights; De Bezige Bij • Novel, 288 pages, April 2011

On the day of the fireworks disaster in En-schede, businessman Harmen Saliger decides to pack his bags and disappear. His wife was in the hardest-hit neighbourhood at the time of the explosion and has almost certainly been killed. There is nothing to keep Saliger from staging his own death and starting a new life elsewhere. The Group of Enschede Entrepreneurs, however, doesn’t believe that Saliger was killed in the blast. After all, he owed them money – lots of money. But no one knows where he is. Not his wife Alide, who barely survived the explosion, or his sister Vivian, who takes care of Alide. But when a life insurance policy pops up, with Harmen’s unknown son as beneficiary, a lot of people have a good reason to try and find him. The chase is on…

peter de zwaan (b. 1944) has written dozens of thrillers. In 2000, his The Office of Alibis won the Dutch Golden Noose Award and he has been nominated often for prestigious thril-ler prizes. With Fireworks, De Zwaan returns to his roots in Enschede. It was there that he was working as a reporter for the daily newspaper Tubantia Dagblad the day the town exploded.

peter de zwaan fireworks. the disappearance of harmen saliger (De vuurwerkramp van Harmen Saliger)

* When the S.E. Fireworks factory in Enschede exploded on Saturday, May 13, 2000, Harmen Saliger knew right away: this is the greatest day of my life.

Documents

Rights list - Spring 2011