Quality Non-Fiction from Holland 2007
For Quality Non-Fiction from Holland 2007 ten very different new titles have been selected. The first two deal with Islam, one a historical study and the other an investigation into modern Dutch multi-cultural society. In The Historical Mohammed, of which 7,000 copies have already been sold, Islam specialist Hans Jansen looks primarily at the legendary Mohammed as portrayed in old, unreliable biographies. Jansen wonders how generations of Western experts were able to follow the example of orthodox Muslims in accepting the old Arabic biographies as a reliable source. He argues that this is dangerous, since these biographies are marked by a bloodlust that is contagious even after fourteen centuries. A German edition of The Historical Mohammed will be published by C.H. Beck.
In Allah’s Woman Warriors investigative journalists Janny Groen and Annieke Kranenberg penetrate the social world of radical Muslim women and tell the breathtaking story of what goes on in the heads of these young women, who seem so impervious and unreachable. The authors themselves describe the book as a sketch of the customs and mores of the Dutch fundamentalist Islamic scene, but Allah’s Woman Warriors is far more than that, as American terrorism expert Jessica Stern points out in her foreword. The tolerant Netherlands is often regarded as Western Europe’s ‘laboratory of radical Islam’. The book will be translated into English by the University of Pennsylvania Press.
Frank Westerman is the author of The Republic of Grain and Engineers of the Soul, which were bestsellers in the Netherlands. In 2005 Westerman received the Flemish Golden Owl Award for El Negro and Me. His latest book, Ararat, a bestseller with 25,000 copies sold that has been short-listed for the prestigious AKO Literature Prize, is a piece of highly personal journalism, splendidly combining Westerman’s own questions with the history of religion, political conflict and advances in scientific research. It will be translated into English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
Evolutionary Thinking is the first book to demonstrate the enormous impact of Darwin’s revolution in all fields, not just biology and medicine but language, ethics and religion. Philosopher of science Chris Buskes offers far more than a comprehensive overview of the implications of Darwinian thought, the main thrust of his polemic being his assertion that evolutionary theory deserves more space than it is usually given, although he also points out its boundaries and limitations. A further merit of Evolutionary Thinking is that it places developments in evolutionary theory within a philosophical framework, commanding a broad intellectual terrain from Plato to the question of what is wrong with the notion that we are created by God.
In On Wings of the Soul anthropologist and philosopher Ton Lemaire goes in search of ‘the broad eloquence of nature’, guided by birds, the creatures that have grown, as no other animal could, into symbols of the human soul. Lemaire paints a panorama of all that birds have signified in different cultures, looking at literature, music, fine art, philosophy and even politics. Lemaire appeals urgently for a new, more ecologically conscious human vision with a greater awareness of the cultural, spiritual and sacred dimensions of nature.
Douwe Draaisma has written some highly successful books: Metaphors of Memory and Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older, short-listed for the Aventis Prize 2005, the world’s most prestigious award for popular science writing. Translation rights for his latest title, Disturbances of the Mind, have been sold in Germany, the UK, Hungary and Poland. In Disturbances of the Mind, of which 15,000 copies have already been sold in The Netherlands, Draaisma takes a closer look at a number of ‘eponyms’ including Parkinson’s, Korsakoff’s, Alzheimer’s and Asperger’s (all syndromes named after the physicians who discovered them) in a series of brilliant portraits that combine literary elegance with professional expertise.
The inventive and original natural scientists active in The Netherlands during the Golden Age are the subject of Eric Jorink’s fascinating The Book of Nature, in which he throws a completely new light on seventeenth-century scientific culture. By experiment and systematic observation, by thinking rationally, these eager researchers developed a modern insight into the diversity of natural forms and distanced themselves from knowledge handed down in the works of classical antiquity and from the authority of the Old Testament. Jorink suggests, however, that this did not involve such a radical break with the past as is generally believed.
In France at War Henk Wesseling tells the story of France’s hunger for colonies and its desire for revenge on Germany. The loss of its status as a great power, and the continual struggle to come to terms with that loss, exert a powerful influence on French politics and society to this day. Wesseling is an historian blessed with a prodigious literary talent; he paints a broad panorama and charts complex long-term developments with great clarity. He has an eye for striking details, telling anecdotes, and the personalities and eccentricities of the numerous actors in the historical dramas he describes.
Few people know what goes on in an artist’s studio, since art lovers rarely have a chance to examine the workplaces where paintings, sculptures or engravings come into being. Studio Secrets, written by well-known art historians such as Carel Blotkamp, Eddy de Jongh and Ernst van de Wetering, offers a fascinating and comprehensive insight into practical aspects of Dutch art production from 1200 to the present. Every imaginable aspect of artistic practice is discussed with enthusiasm and infectious curiosity, from painterly techniques and design procedures to the function of the workplace in teaching and the importance of the studio in the images contemporary artists project of themselves.
August Willemsen is a great football fan, but first of all he is a man of letters. He has translated work by several major Portuguese and Brazilian writers, but is also the author of a classic of Dutch sports literature: The Divine Canary, a compelling socio-cultural sketch of Brazil in the light of its love of football. ‘For a few hours a Brazilian amongst Brazilians. That’s the liberating sense of joy that awaits the reader of The Divine Canary,’ wrote the Dutch daily newspaper Trouw.
By Maarten Valken
Information
More information about these books can be found here.
During the upcoming Frankfurt Book Fair the brochure Quality Non-Fiction from Holland will be available at stand 6.0 C971, where Maarten Valken will be happy to give you more information about these and other non-fiction titles.
Published: September 27, 2007 features | news | non-fiction