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.
After ten years of producing this newsletter on a voluntary basis, we have decided that it’s time to leave this side of promoting Dutch books in English to others. The Low Countries, for instance, which began publishing a similar list a few years ago: https://www.the-low-countries.com/article/13-dutch-books-to-get-cozy-warm-this-winter-2023-1. Anyone who is interested in continuing the newsletter in its current form is welcome to contact us.
In the meantime we hope you enjoy the current and our final crop of new Dutch books in English. Particularly exciting titles this time round are On a Woman’s Madness, Astrid Roemer’s first novel to be translated into English and The Complete Jip and Janneke, the first English translation of the large volume of Jip and Janneke stories, based on the revised Dutch edition of 2019.
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 from July 2022 through May 2023, plus a peek at the months ahead.
Astrid H. Roemer, On a Woman’s Madness, trans. Lucy Scott. Two Lines Press.
Stefan Hertmans, The Ascent, trans. David McKay. Harvill Secker, Text.
Arnon Grunberg, Good Men, trans. Sam Garrett. Open Letter.
Jente Posthuma, What I’d Rather Not Think About, trans. Sarah Timmer Harvey, Scribe.
Elle van Rijn, The Orphans of Amsterdam, trans. Jai van Essen. Storyfire (Bookouture).
Gerwin van der Werf, The Hitchhiker, trans. David Colmer. Text.
Roger Van de Velde, Crackling Skulls, trans. Jonathan Reeder. Snuggly Books.
Frank Westerman, We, Hominids, trans. Sam Garrett. Head of Zeus.
Bregje Hofstede, In Search of Sleep, trans. Alice Tetley-Paul. Greystone.
Bas von Benda-Beckmann, After the Annex: Anne Frank, Auschwitz and Beyond, trans. Tony Langham, Plym Peters. Unicorn.
Fred Brouwers, Beethoven in the Bunker, trans. Eileen Stevens. Other Press.
Karel Davids etc., editors, The World and The Netherlands: A Global History from a Dutch Perspective, trans. by Vivien Collingwood. Bloomsbury.
Michiel Panhuysen, In the Spell of the Barkley: Unravelling the Mystery of the World’s Toughest Ultramarathon, trans. Tanya Behiels. Bloomsbury.
Pieter van Os, Hiding in Plain Sight: How a Jewish Girl Survived Europe’s Heart of Darkness, trans. David Doherty. Scribe.
Steven Derix, Marina Shelkunova, Zelensky: Ukraine’s President and His Country, trans. Brent Annable. Canbury Press.
Thijs Launspach, Crazy Busy: Keeping Sane in a Stressful World, trans. Danny Guinan. Capstone.
Annie M.G. Schmidt, The Complete Jip and Janneke, trans. David Colmer, ill. Fiep Westendorp. Querido.
Anna Woltz, My Especially Weird Week with Tess, trans. David Colmer. Rock the Boat.
Bette Westera, Later, When I’m Big, trans. Laura Watkinson, Eerdmans.
Ed Franck, The Moon is a Ball, trans. David Colmer., ill Thé Tjong-Khing, Gecko Press.
Leo Timmers, Kind Crocodile, trans. Bill Nagelkerke, ill. Leo Timmers. Gecko Press.
Leo Timmers, Elephant Island, trans. James Brown, Gecko Press
Marc ter Horst, Snot, Sneezes, and Super-spreaders: Everything You Need to Know about Viruses and How to Stop Them, trans. Laura Watkinson, ill. Wendy Panders. Greystone Books.
Maranke Rinck, Popcorn Bob in America, trans. Nancy Forest-Flier, ill. Martijn van der Linden. Levine Querido.
Paul Biegel, The Gardens of Dorr, trans. Gillian Hume, Paul Biegel, ill. Eva-Johanna Rubin. Pushkin Press.
Sieb Posthuma, Mr. Coats, trans. David Colmer. Levine Querido.
Nachoem M. Wijnberg, Nachoem M. Wijnberg, trans. David Colmer, New York Review of Books.
Hanny Michaelis, In an Unguarded Moment: Selected Poems, trans. Judith Wilkinson. Shoestring Press.
Elmar Kuiper, Earthskin: Selected Poems, trans. David Colmer. Copper Coin.
Willem M. Roggeman, What Only Painters See: Selected Poems, trans. Philippe Ernewein. Bamboo Dart Press.
Barbara Stok, The Philosopher, the Dog and the Wedding, trans. Michele Hutchison. SelfMadeHero.
Erik Kriek, The Exile, trans. Sean M. Robinson, Erik Kriek. Living the Line.
Looking ahead
As we sign off on our final newsletter we’d like to bring a small selection of forthcoming highlights to your attention for the months and years ahead.
August will see the publication of two children’s books translated by Michele Hutchison: The Starling’s Song by Octavie Wolters (Pushkin Press) and Raoul Deleo’s Terra Ultima (Big Picture Press/Bonniers). In October, Girls by Annet Schaap, translated by Laura Watkinson, will come out from Pushkin Press.
Notable fiction titles include two books translated by Kristen Gehrmann, Lale Gul’s I Want To Live (Little, Brown, date tbc) and Tobi Lakmaker’s The Story of My Sexuality (Granta, January 2024). Anne Eekhout’s Mary, translated by Laura Watkinson, will be published by Pushkin Press in November. Scribe will be publishing both the new Gerbrand Bakker, The Hairdresser’s Son (trs David Colmer, tbc 2024), and The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje (trs. David McKay, 2025). Gerda Blees’s We Are Light (trs Michele Hutchison) will be published by World Editions this August. Faber will publish another of Hutchison’s translations, My Heavenly Favourite by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld in early 2024. Profile have bought Confrontations by Simone Atanga Bekono, translated by Suzanne Heukenfeld Jansen for publication January 2024. Last but not least, Two Lines will publish Off-White by Astrid Roemer in October (trs David McKay & Lucy Scott).
In non-fiction, Matthijs Deen’s Boundless River has been translated by Jonathan Reeder and Jane Hedley-Prole for MacLehose Press (date tbc). David Doherty has been translating Jan Brokken’s Baltic Souls for Scribe (late 2024). Davids Colmer and McKay have translated Revolusi by another David – Van Reybrouck, for Bodley Head (February 2024). Jonathan Reeder is currently translating The Sound of Utopia by Michiel Krielaars for Pushkin Press. Brent Annabel’s translation of The Avant-Gardists by Sjeng Scheijen will be published by Thames & Hudson (date tbc).
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