Sampler GO*DUTCH!
A taste of the authors’ writing will be showcased in a hundred-page sampler to be distributed up and down the country via readers’ groups, libraries, literary festivals and a selection of independent bookshops. GO*DUTCH! is an introduction to eight writers whose work represents the extraordinary range of literature being translated from Dutch.
Some of these names may be familiar to readers in the UK. Geert Mak’s majestic journey through twentieth century Europe is already an established classic, and Frank Westerman’s exploration of his own journey to Mount Ararat has been well received. Other names, including Toon Tellegen, Tommy Wieringa, Arnon Grunberg, Otto de Kat, Cynthia Mc Leod and Joris Luyendijk are less familiar, but no less approachable.
Perhaps because the Netherlands share so many characteristics with the UK, literature in Dutch has many parallels. The post-colonial experience is central to the work of Cynthia Mc Leod (who lives in Suriname, the former Dutch colony in South America), while a rites ritesof- passage to adulthood is the focus of Tommy Wieringa’s novel, Joe Speedboat. Joris Luyendijk’s book, People Like Us - The Truth About Reporting The Middle East, explores the relationship between Islam and the West. All these are subjects shared with UK writers.
Personal experience as a basis for deeply considered books on contemporary history and politics is a characteristic of many Dutch writers. Another is a gift for narrative - whether it be of wartime travels around the globe as in Otto de Kat’s Man on the Move, Arnon Grunberg’s playful and beguiling stories of modern life or the stories of Toon Tellegen, loved by adult readers as much as by the children for whom they were written.
None of this writing would reach readers in the UK without the inspired work of their translators, including Sam Garrett, Michele Hutchison, Brian Doyle, Lisa Friedman and Ron de Klerk, Judith Wilkinson and Martin Cleaver. Go Dutch! is supported by the publishers Arcadia Books, Boxer Books, Comma Press, Harvill Secker, Portobello, MacLehose Press, Reportage Press and Shoestring Press. We are grateful for the support of Arts Council England and the Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature.
By Jonathan Davidson
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Published: August 17, 2009 godutch