Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld

ONE OF THE GUARDIAN’S TOP TEN BEST NEW BOOKS IN TRANSLATION

The sensational Dutch bestseller: Lucas Rijneveld’s extraordinary portrait of a farming family distorted by grief, translated by Michele Hutchison.

I asked God if he please couldn’t take my brother Matthies instead of my rabbit. ‘Amen.’

Ten-year-old Jas has a unique way of experiencing her universe: the feeling of udder ointment on her skin as protection against harsh winters; the texture of green warts, like capers, on migrating toads; the sound of ‘blush words’ that aren’t in the Bible. But when a tragic accident ruptures the family, her curiosity warps into a vortex of increasingly disturbing fantasies – unlocking a darkness that threatens to derail them all.

A bestselling sensation in the Netherlands, Lucas Rijneveld’s radical debut novel is studded with images of wild, violent beauty: a world of language unlike any other.

The sensational Dutch bestseller: Lucas Rijneveld’s extraordinary portrait of a farming family distorted by grief, translated by Michele Hutchison.

About the Author: Lucas Rijneveld (b. 1991) grew up in a Reformed farming family in North Brabant before moving to Utrecht. One of the greatest new voices in Dutch literature, his first poetry collection, Calfskin, was awarded the C. Buddingh’ Prize for best poetry debut in 2015, with the newspaper de Volkskrant naming him literary talent of the year. In 2018, Atlas Contact published his first novel, The Discomfort of Evening, which won the prestigious ANV Debut Prize and was a national bestseller. Alongside his writing career, Rijneveld works on a dairy farm.

Michele Hutchison was born in the UK and has lived in Amsterdam since 2004. After a stint as an editor, she became a literary translator from Dutch. Her translations include the bestselling An American Princess by Annejet van der Zijl, Mona in Three Acts by Griet op de Beeck and Seaweed by Miek Zwamborn – and most recently, The Discomfort of Evening by Lucas Riijneveld. She is also co-author of The Happiest Kids in the World.

05 Mar 2020
 

The Discomfort of Evening: WINNER OF THE BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2020 by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld ISBN 9780571349364