Writersblog

Salomon Kroonenberg

Salomon Kroonenberg, Dutch writer

The Dutch programme at the International Book Fair in Beijing was cunn... >>> read more

Henk Pröpper

Henk Pröpper, Director Dutch Foundation for Literature

In two weeks’ time, the official opening of one of the largest b... >>> read more

Kai Kang

Kai Kang, Journalist China Reading Weekly

Dear Dutch publishers. The book fair is over. Perhaps you’ll now... >>> read more

Ingrid and Dieter Schubert

Ingrid and Dieter Schubert, Dutch illustrators

The days are full and long. We are incessantly bombarded with impressi... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

Arriving on the stand on the first day, I’d asked a Chinese visi... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

Big excitement today since we were finally meeting with Songyu from Fl... >>> read more

Ingrid and Dieter Schubert

Ingrid and Dieter Schubert, Dutch illustrators

It’s now the third day, and the first one with plenty of sun. Un... >>> read more

Kai Kang

Kai Kang, Journalist China Reading Weekly

What a great opportunity to learn about the Dutch literature for Chine... >>> read more

Salomon Kroonenberg

Salomon Kroonenberg, Dutch writer

A duck flies to and fro over the vast expanses of world ocean, despera... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

‘In the era of browsing, we provide reading.’ - Slogan see... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

The jewel in the crown of our collection of Arbeiderspers titles publi... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

The Chinese publishers I have met during the course of my career, the ... >>> read more

Salomon Kroonenberg

Salomon Kroonenberg, Dutch writer

I have so far never been to a book fair. Nor do I know what to imagine... >>> read more

Kai Kang

Kai Kang, Journalist China Reading Weekly

Since 2006, I began writing about the Netherlands’ performance a... >>> read more

Henk Pröpper

Henk Pröpper, Director Dutch Foundation for Literature

Now that the fair is just round the corner, this is perhaps the moment... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

The traffic in Beijing is horrendous, I’m sure the other blogger... >>> read more

Thomas Möhlmann

Thomas Möhlmann, Staff member Dutch Foundation for Literature

What an evening the poets and the approximately 200 onlookers present ... >>> read more


Hugo Claus - The Rumours

Hugo Claus - The Rumours

Hugo Claus set The Rumours in the mid-1960s. René Catrijsse, a man in his twenties who fought in the Belgian Congo before deserting, returns to his home village of Alegem in West Flanders, a stifling, closed society of corrupt souls. By his very presence, the young man, who has witnessed and committed atrocities in Africa and learned about the narrowness of the divide between civilization and savagery, seriously disrupts life in the village.

The disturbance caused by his arrival manifests itself in a deadly epidemic that sweeps through Alegem, and in a series of fatal accidents. It is not hard to guess who will be blamed. It is as if a cesspit has opened up as one disaster follows another.

The central theme of this book is characteristic of Claus: the unresolved past of Belgium’s colonial struggles in the Congo. And since the deserter René was fathered by a Flemish Nazi collaborator, the book touches on that aspect of the past as well. All this is presented by Claus in a playful style, as if we were witnessing not a dramatic allegory but a juicy tale of village life.

Biography

Hugo Claus (1929-2008) is the most important post-war Flemish writer. In addition to his literary work, he has been active as a painter and a movie maker. His wide-ranging oeuvre consists of novels, stories, poems, plays and film scripts. His masterpiece is The Sorrow of Belgium (1983) a massive Bildungsroman set against a black page in the history of Belgium: collaboration with the German occupier during the Second World War. Claus has received many important domestic and foreign prizes, among them the Great Prize of Dutch Letters in 1986, the most important literary honor in the Dutch language. In 1997 he received the Libris Literature Prize for The Rumours.

Quotes

  • ‘Impressive, incisive and wise…’ – NRC Handelsblad
  • ‘In writing prose, Claus never ceases to be a poet.’ – Trouw