**THE TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF THE YEARA FINANCIAL TIMES TRANSLATED FICTION BOOK OF THE YEARAN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR**__________It is 1941, and Antwerp is in the grip of Nazi occupation. Young policeman Wilfried Wils has no intention of being a hero - but war has a way of catching up with people.When his idealistic best friend draws him into the growing resistance movement, and an SS commander tries to force him...

By the award-winning author of The TwinOn a hot summer’s day in June 1969 everyone in the village gathered to welcome Queen Juliana. It would have been an unforgettable day of celebration if only the baker hadn’t been running late with his deliveries and knocked down little Hanne with his brand-new VW van.Years later, Jan arrives on a hot day in June in order to tidy his sister’s grave, and is overcome again with grief and silent fury. Isn’t it fin...

Subversive, visual, and bold, Curaçao-born Dutch Radna Fabias’ explosive debut collection Habitus marks the entry of a genre-altering poet. Habitus is a collection full of thrilling sensory images, lines in turn grim and enchanting which move from the Caribbean island of Curaçao to the immigrant experience of the Netherlands. Fabias’ intrepid masterpiece explores issues of racism, neo-colonialism, poverty, and sexism with a heartbreaking rhythm and endless nuance....

D�sir� Cordier - mild-mannered former librarian, put-upon husband, lover of boules - is losing his mind. Or is he? Happily tucked away in the Winterlight Home for the Elderly, D�sir� is looking forward to a quiet retirement with the other forgetful residents, safe in the knowledge that no one knows he's faking his memory loss. And as if there weren't reasons enough to opt out of the modern world, it would be worth it just to see Rosa Rozendaal again - the love of D�sir�'s youth, the one wh...

WINNER OF THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE'A wonderful novel. Wise and generous to a fault of all our human failings and frailties' Lloyd Jones, author of Mister PipA Dutch woman rents a remote farm in rural Wales. She says her name is Emilie. She has left her husband, having confessed to an affair.In Amsterdam, her stunned husband forms a strange partnership with a detective who agrees to help him trace her. They boar...

An impressively entertaining tale about the frailty of human civilisation by the leading Flemish writer Peter Verhelst, now for the first time in English.Warning: This story is narrated by a gorilla. He is plucked from the jungle. He learns to chat and passes the ultimate test: a cocktail party. Eventually he is moved to an amusement park, where he acts in a play about the history of civilisation. But as the gorilla becomes increasingly aware of human frailties, he must choose betw...

When his twin brother dies in a car accident, Helmer is obliged to return to the small family farm. He resigns himself to taking over his brother's role and spending the rest of his days 'with his head under a cow'.After his old, worn-out father has been transferred upstairs, Helmer sets about furnishing the rest of the house according to his own minimal preferences. 'A double bed and a duvet', advises Ada, who lives next door, with a sly look. Then Riet appears, the woman once eng...

Multi–award-winning Dutch author Gerbrand Bakker’s phenomenal new novel about grief and the unavoidable power of family ties.Simon never knew his father, Cornelis. When his wife told him she was pregnant, Cornelis packed his bags, and a day later he was dead. Or everyone assumed he was dead; after all, he was on the passenger list of the KLM plane that crashed in Tenerife in 1977.Simon is a hairdresser, just like his father and grandfather before him, but h...

A young woman is employed by a maid by a music publisher in Amsterdam, in the eighteenth century. She is confronted with his homosexuality and the penalties that follow on discovery.

'Those in search of a cosy, gently delivered philosophy will melt' Financial TimesThe next book in internationally bestselling author Toon Tellegen's witty, philosophical series of animal fables about mental health, which started with The Hedgehog's Dilemma.One day, a heavy, dull feeling fills the cricket's head. And it won't go away.The other animals try to help. Would he like a party? Has he tried being cheerful?...

In his first English-language collection, Dutch-Moroccan poet Mustafa Stitou marks his position as one of the most important poets of his generation. Two Half Faces collects work from across Stitou’s career as he grapples with a vital narrative of cultural friction and determines his position in a changing reality. Absurdity and seriousness go hand in hand in Stitou’s work; the anecdotal combines with the irreverent and the sublime to form a vibrant tension. Stitou brilliantly par...

Mr. Coats is freezing cold.No matter how many heaters he turns on, how many blankets he sleeps under at night, or how many layers he wears, he can simply never get warm.Being this cold all the time is lonely. And loneliness is a chilly feeling. Mr. Coats thinks he'll be alone in the cold forever, but he's wrong. There's someone out there just like him.