Zomers’ bravado could do with a bit more psychology

Yanaika Zomer, Hermit Days | 294 pp. | De Bezige Bij, €23.99

Writer, poet and journalist Yanaika Zomer (46) made a big impression two years ago with her debut poetry collection You still have 43 unread poems. Now she has published her debut novel, Hermit Days, which centres on a woman whose life is turned upside down.

Meira, a 37-year-old lecturer in English literature, is happily married to the handsome Samuel, with whom she has two young children. Although Samuel and Meira have been together for over twenty years – they met following the death of her father, whom she lost when she was fifteen – they are still madly in love and have a wonderful sex life. Whilst Meira realises that her mother, Suze, is succumbing to early-onset dementia, she comes into contact with the artist Monk online. The purchase of one of his artworks is her first act in a ‘delightful series of acts of rebellion’. ‘A hitherto unacknowledged desire to do something silly just once.’

The online conversations between Meira and Monk, who also has a happy and loving family, offer Meira a daily escape from caring for her rapidly deteriorating mother and the fear that she herself might face the same fate. And, of course, it doesn’t stop at just online contact. Her friend Keet is the only one who knows about it.

The story covers the seven days following Monk’s sudden death, during which Meira is at a loss as to how to cope with her grief and has to pretend she has the flu. The year and a half during which Meira’s affair and her mother’s dementia unfold is told in flashback, with plenty of dialogue that is sometimes drawn out a little too long.

Zomer writes with flair and uses raw, direct metaphors, but the characters’ psychology could have been more convincing. Of course, people do illogical things and not all of a character’s behaviour needs to be explained, but that is a different matter from whether their behaviour comes across as believable.

Appreciate this article!