Photographer Marc Brester and journalist Vivian de Gier can read and write with each other - literally. As partners in crime, they travel the world for various media, for reviews of the finest literature and personal interviews with the writers who matter. Ahead of the troops and beyond the delusion of the day.
Wolf is Kristien Hemmerechts' first novel since her non-fiction book about breast cancer, and it is about rage. What it's like to be furious, the Belgian writer knows all about that. "When I had breast cancer, I experienced intense feelings of aggression." Why is it that some people who have experienced trauma or tragedy can give it a place,...
Tomas Ross, also called the godfather of Dutch 'faction', concludes his trilogy on the Dutch East Indies with his new thriller Het verdriet van Wilhelmina. ,,Readers often say: with you, we never know what is true and what is false. You might find that an objection, but I think it's a compliment.'' Arnie Springer The new thriller by Tomas...
This young writer from Hengelo - she turns 32 in January - sold over a quarter of a million copies of her debut novel This Is Where It Ends in the United States. It spent 64 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. So Hengelo-based Young Adult writer Marieke Nijkamp did feel slight pressure while writing her second book, Before I...
A Quattro Mani's pop-uprecent Afke Bohle takes up the challenge of reading a book with her sons. After good experiences with Suzie Ruzie and Susan van 't Hullenaar's The Green Hand series, she is now venturing into Tori, Brian Elstak's recent children's book in collaboration with author Karin Amatmoekrim, touted as: 'finally a book for all children'....
She has just flown in and has barely had time to eat lunch. So after the interview, Nigella Lawson (57) quickly fishes a sandwich out of a plastic bag from her bag. The successful British television chef has a killer schedule promoting her new cookbook, and there is no more than this between interviews. A...
How should you grieve? Is there any way to grieve, or are you at the mercy of fate? How do you deal with someone in grief? Grief therapist Julia Samuel has been helping people who have lost a loved one for 25 years. By now, she knows how to and, more importantly, how not to. In March this year, a few days before...
I Know a Secret is the twelfth thriller in the series surrounding detective Jane Rizzoli and pathologist-anatomist Maura Isles. Writer Tess Gerritsen reached an audience of millions with it, but longs for more. As the main characters of Tess Gerritsen's thrillers, detective Jane Rizzoli and pathologist Maura Isles have been through quite a bit by now. Yet they are startled by the state of their...
What would Italy be like a year after the earthquakes, we had wondered. What would be left of the centuries-old cultural heritage in this beautiful region on the border of Umbria, Marche and Lazio? Why do you never really hear about it in the news anymore? We ourselves, Vivian de Gier and Marc Brester, residents of just...
On 11 September 1985, the biggest train disaster in Portuguese history took place. Near Alcafache, an international express train collided with a local barge. Nothing was ever recovered from dozens of passengers. They were totally charred in the scorching inferno. Portuguese writer João Ricardo Pedro, in his stunning novel Underway, reconstructs how one of those missing people ended up in that place where...
When he was given a car to play with as a child, you wouldn't hear or see him all day. Because he does love people and likes to perform, but off-stage rapper Glenn de Randamie (32), aka Typhoon, prefers to be by himself. Then he has peace, humour and creativity for ten. 'The more alone I...
They have been around for 25 years but are buzzing as if they were founded yesterday. With the creation of a work of art at Eelde airport - to be followed live from today - as well as exhibitions at 25 locations in and around Groningen, the artists of the international artists' collective toyism are celebrating their anniversary. Self-willed, original and committed are perhaps the most important characteristics of this international collective....
He is a tormented, loner and contrarian fellow, but also one of the best detectives the Oslo police force has to offer. And: a much-loved character. Harry Hole is back, in Jo Nesbø's new thriller The Thirst. If the interview could be a few hours later, as he is suffering from jet lag. Popular Norwegian bestselling author Jo...
On Wednesday 21 June, the Zilveren Griffels, Zilveren Penselen en Paletten and Vlag en Wimpels will be awarded - the prelude to the presentation of Het Gouden Penseel and Het Gulden Palet in September and the Gouden Griffel in October. Interview with last year's Golden Griffel winner Anna Woltz on writing, growing up and the Griffels, of course. By Tijmen...
Later, when I grow up... Lawyer Susan van 't Hullenaar (1970) always dreamed of becoming a writer. As her 12.5-year work anniversary approached, she realised: I have to take the plunge now, otherwise it won't happen. She quit her job, became her own boss as a copywriter and picked up her pen - well, the computer. 'I gave...
A Quattro Mani's pop-up reviewer Afke Bohle took up the challenge of reading a book with her eldest son. After the first volume in Susan van 't Hullenaar's De Groene Hand series, the second soon followed. And what was her surprise: now the wait for part three is actually taking too long... My youngest son loves books, but...
The novel Her Name was Sarah (nine million copies sold) made Tatiana de Rosnay world-famous. In Paris, she even wears a wig when she does not want to be recognised. That she struggled with anorexia she kept secret for years. [bol_product_links block_id=”bol_592be29ab4765_selected-products” products=”9200000075700087,1001004010207707,9200000077515228,9200000011255053″ name="a4m" sub_id="de rosnay" link_color="003399″ subtitle_color="000000″ pricetype_color="000000″ price_color="CC3300″ deliverytime_color="009900″ background_color="FFFFFF" border_color="D2D2D2″ width="549″ cols="2″ show_bol_logo="0″ show_price="1″ show_rating="1″ show_deliverytime="1″ link_target="1″ image_size="1″ admin_preview="1″] Eight life questions...
In the commission given to artist Elisa Pesapane by the National Museum of Antiquities, her passions came together: drawing, antiquity, research and portraiture. From today, twelve drawings about 'le solitaire des ruines': the military engineer Jean Emile Humbert, in search of the city of Carthage, are on display at the RMO. Portrait Italian-Dutch artist Elisa Pesapane (b. 1977) is, among other things,...
Bark Skins Annie Proulx We had to gather some courage to start Annie Proulx's Bark Skins. After all, the book is 800 pages long, so you have to make some time for it. But this novel is well worth that. As a reader, you are unceremoniously planted in the wild forest of North America, still called New France in the late seventeenth century....
See, the Belgians do that well. When a new literary festival comes along, it immediately lasts more than a whole week instead of two days. Today marks the start of the first edition of the International Literature Festival BRU-TAAL. Five reasons to travel to 'the Venice of the North' in the coming days: Bruges. 9 days, 2 weekends, almost 59 writers,...
He finds himself lazy and under-ambitious, and struggles with acceptance - of himself, of others, of the world. Because his grandparents had lived through the Holocaust, there was a taboo on being unhappy in his youth. Eight life questions to Jewish-American writer Jonathan Safran Foer. 'Between what I could do and actually do, there is a big gap.' 1....
Earlier this year, Mircea Cărtărescu, Romania's greatest writer, was a guest at the Winternachten festival. Writer Mira Feticu, who was born and grew up in Romania and even received lectures from Cărtărescu as a student, interviewed her former compatriot and professor for A Quattro Mani. A beautiful conversation about their homeland, truth, literature and poetry. 'My books are...
Babylon Yasmina Reza With her novel Babylon, Yasmina Reza won the prix Renaudot, France's most important literary prize after the prix Goncourt. The main character is 62-year-old Elisabeth Jauze. Elisabeth is a patent examiner at the Institute Pasteur and leads a sedate life with her husband Pierre. In contrast to her sister Jeanne, who has been caught up in sexual adventures since separation that...
Adultery, lustful sex and desperately dating forty-somethings - these are the spicy ingredients of caSINO, Frieda Mulisch's debut novel. On their quest for true love, her protagonists Polly and Sam scour dating app caSINO, a kind of Tinder. We talk to her about her book, literary aspirations and, of course, her father Harry Mulisch. 'If Tinder had been around fifty years ago,...
We know him from such wonderful novels as To the Other Side of the Night and The Last Escape, but Jan van Mersbergen has more to his credit. He recently surprised us with The Rider, written from the perspective of an old horse, and now there is Diary from the River. Not a novel, but his first thriller, published under the pseudonym Frederik Baas....
You can dream of a better world, but why not take action yourself? Journalist Rachel van de Pol (33) decided to do a good deed every day for a year, from asking for a doggy bag at a restaurant to ragging the neighbours' windows or handing out ice creams to construction workers at...
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