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 has been a lot of attention for English translations of Dutch-language literature in the last few months with a media storm in the Netherlands around the long overdue publication of an English version of Gerard Reve’s De Avonden (The Evenings, trans. Sam Garrett). Another stand-out has been Stefan Hertmans’s War and Turpentine (trans. David McKay). In autumn we drew attention to the great reviews it had been getting in both the US and the UK, and it has now been longlisted for both the Man Booker International in the UK and the Best Translated Book Award in the US, the two premier prizes for translated fiction in the English-speaking world.
Highlights of the current crop include a retranslated classic (Turkish Delight), a potentially controversial first novel (Inge Schilperoord’s Tench), another Tonke Dragt classic, and the first English collection by the Netherlands’ brand-new poet laureate, Ester Naomi Perquin.
Fiction
Inge Schilperoord, Tench, translated by David Colmer. Pushkin Press, 2017. PB. Orders: [email protected]
Jan Wolkers, Turkish Delight, translated by Sam Garrett. Tin House Books, 2017. PB.
Otto de Kat, The Longest Night, translated by Laura Watkinson. MacLehose Press, 2017. HB. Orders: [email protected]
Britta Böhler, The Decision, translated by Jeannette K. Ringold. Haus Publishing, 2016. PB.
Charles den Tex, Anneloes Timmerije, Finding Her, translated by Brian Doyle. World Editions, 2016. PB. Orders: Centraal Boekhuis.
Jan Vantoortelboom, His Name is David, translated by Vivien Glass. World Editions, 2016. PB. Orders: Centraal Boekhuis.
Kim van Kooten, Dearest, translated by Arjaan van Nimwegen, Thijs van Nimwegen. Lebowski, 2016. PB.
Saskia Goldschmidt, The Hormone Factory, translated by Hester Velmans. Saraband, 2016. PB.
Wytske Versteeg, The Boy, translated by Sarah Welling. HopeRoad Publishing, 2016, PB.
Children’s and Young Adult
Annie M.G. Schmidt, A Year in Holland with Jip and Janneke, translated by David Colmer. Ill. Fiep Westendorp. Querido, HB. Orders: Centraal Boekhuis.
Tonke Dragt, The Song of Seven, translated by Laura Watkinson. Pushkin Press, 2016 HB. Orders: [email protected]
Annemarie van Haeringen, Mr. Matisse and his Cutouts, translated by Jan Michael. Ill. Annemarie van Haeringen. New York; London: North-South Books, 2016. HB
Edward van de Vendel, Sam in Winter, translated by David Colmer. Ill. Philip Hopman. Eerdmans, 2017. HB. Orders: [email protected]
Paul van Loon, The Horror Handbook, translated by Sander Berg. Ill. Axel Scheffler. Alma Books, 2016. PB..
Piet Grobler, Hey, Frog! translated by Jesse Goossens. Ill. Piet Grobler. Lemniscaat, 2017. HB.
Tjibbe Veldkamp, Tom the Tamer, translated by Jesse Goossens. Lemniscaat, 2017, HB.
Poetry
Ester Naomi Perquin, The Hunger in Plain View, translated by David Colmer. White Pine Press, 2017. PB. Orders: [email protected]
Nonfiction
Wilfried de Jong, The Man and His Bike, translated by David Doherty. Ebury Press,2017. HB.
Anton Blok, Radical Innovators, translated by Anton Blok. Polity, 2016. PB.
Abel J.Herzberg, Amor Fati, translated by Jack Santcross. Wallstein, 2016 HB.
Fred Lanzing, Camp Life Is Paradise for Freddy, translated by Marjolijn de Jager. Ohio University Press, 2017. PB.
Koen Vossen, The Power of Populism, translated by Vivien Glass. Abingdon: Routledge, Taylor and Francis, 2016. HB.
Paul de Grauwe, The Limits of the Market, translated by Anna Asbury, OUP, 2017. HB.
Willem L Oltmans, Reporting on the Kennedy Assassination, translated by David Stephenson. University Press of Kansas, 2017. HB.
