This is a twice-yearly selection of new Dutch-language literature in English translation.
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Books are listed by genre, with our choice of key titles at the top and the rest of our selection in alphabetical order by author. We have included a link to the publisher’s Dutch and Belgian distributor if we have it.
There was much excitement here when Jaap Robben’s Summer Brother, beautifully translated by David Doherty, made the longlist of the 2021 International Booker Prize. Sadly it didn’t make the shortlist, but there’s always next year’s Dublin Prize.
Last year, David McKay & Ina Rilke’s translation of Multatuli’s classic novel indicting colonialism, Max Havelaar (NYRB Classics), was shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize and this year’s shortlist includes Michele Hutchison’s International Booker-winning translation, The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (Faber).
A Dutch and Flemish edition of The Riveter magazine was launched online last month at the British Library. The issue features many up and coming Dutch authors as well as big names and is available to download for free: https://www.eurolitnetwork.com/the-riveter/
Many publishers are now selling directly to customers from their websites so please consider ordering your copies there and check out what else they have to offer. Or take a look at bookshop.org (US) or uk.bookshop.org (UK) and order from your local independent.
Books published between October 2020 and May 2021.
Jaap Robben, Summer Brother, trans. David Doherty, World Editions, UK
Lize Spit, The Melting, trans. Kristen Gehrman, Macmillan, UK
Connie Palmen, Your Story, My Story, trans. Eileen Stevens & Anna Asbury, AmazonCrossing, US & UK
Cyriel Buysse, The Aunts, trans. David McKay, Snuggly Books, US
Otto de Kat, Freetown, trans. Laura Watkinson. MacLehose Press, UK
Marjolein van Heemstra, In Search of a Name, trans. Jonathan Reeder, Atria Books US
Saskia Goldschmidt, Shocked Earth, trans. Antoinette Fawcett, Saraband, UK
Jan Brokken, The Just, trans. David McKay, Scribe, UK & Australia
Willem-Jan Verlinden, The Van Gogh Sisters, trans. Brendan Monaghan & Yvette Rosenberg, Thames & Hudson, UK
Ellen de Visser, That One Patient: Doctors and Nurses’ Stories of the Patients Who Changed Their Lives Forever, trans. Brent Annable, Fourth Estate, UK
Arthur Brand, Hitler’s Horses: The Incredible True Story of the Detective who Infiltrated the Nazi Underworld, trans. Jane Hedley-Prole, Ebury Press, UK
Eva Meijer, The Limits of my Language, trans. Antoinette Fawcett, Pushkin Press, UK
Lynn Berger, Second Thoughts, trans. Anna Asbury, September Publishing, UK
P.C. Emmer & Jos JL Gommans, The Dutch Overseas Empire, 1600-1800, trans. Marilyn Hedges. Cambridge University Press, US/UK
Angela Maas, A Woman’s Heart: Why Female Heart Health Really Matters, trans. Suzanne Heukensfeldt Jansen, Aster, UK
Wouter Kusters, A Philosophy of Madness. The Experience of Psychotic Thinking, trans. Nancy Forest-Flier, The MIT Press, US/UK
Paul Scheffer, Freedom of the Border, trans. Liz Waters, Polity Press, UK
Mark Schuilenburg, Hysteria, trans. Vivien Glass, Routledge, UK
Frederike Geerdink, This Fire Never Dies: One Year With the PKK, trans. Anna Asbury & Vivien D. Glass. LeftWord Books, India
Jacques & Lise, Victor, tr. Laura Watkinson. Illus. Jacques & Lise, Pushkin Press, UK
Jan Van Der Veken, Planes, trans, David McKay, Prestel Publishing
Maranke Rinck, Popcorn Bob, ill. Martijn van der Linden, trans. Nancy Forest-Flier, Levine Querido, US
Mies van Hout, If Only, trans. David Colmer, Pajama Press, Canada
Alfred Schaffer, Man Animal Thing, trans. Michele Hutchison, Eyewear, UK
Simone Atangana Bekono, How the First Sparks Became Visible. trans. David Colmer. The Emma Press, UK
