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


Margriet de Moor

Margriet de Moor

  • Opening programme 'Open landscape - open book'
    Date: Tue 30 August Time: 06.00 pm Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts
  • Literature and the Elements
    Date: Thu 1 September Time: 07.00 pm Venue: The Bookworm Beijing
  • Xu Zechen in conversation with Margriet de Moor
    Date: Fri 2 September Time: 02.00 pm Venue: BIBF

Life and work

Margriet de Moor (b. 1941) made her debut with a collection of stories, Op de rug gezien (‘Seen From Behind’, 1988). A year later, Dubbelportret (‘Double Portrait’) appeared, three novellas in one volume. Together these publications earned her the Van der Hoogt Prize. De Moor’s highly praised first novel, Eerst grijs dan wit dan blauw (‘First Grey, Then White, Then Blue’, 1990) won her the AKO Literature Prize, for which De virtuoos (‘The Virtuoso’, 1993) was also nominated. She has since published novels such as Hertog van Egypte (‘Duke of Egypt’, 1996), Kreutzersonate (‘The Kreutzersonata’, 2001) and De verdronkene (‘Drowned’, 2005). Her most recent novel is De schilder en het meisje (The Painter And The Girl, 2010). Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages.

De verdronkene

In Margriet de Moor’s fiction, tragedy often arises from trivial incidents, such as the discovery of a diary in the street or the glance of a woman in a room. She shows that the firm grip modern man thinks he has on life is mere illusion. Drowned tells the story of two sisters who make the fateful decision to switch roles for a day or two: Lidy, the stronger sibling, drives from Amsterdam to Zeeland to attend a party for her sister Amanda’s godchild, leaving her own two-year-old infant behind. It is 31 January 1953, the day the dykes of Zeeland broke and hundreds of people were drowned. The novel moves back and forth between the dark night of cold and death and the warmth and safety of Amsterdam. Even within chapters De Moor switches registers, presenting bizarre details that make her story all the more believable and affecting. Her beautiful and relentless account of lives overwhelmed by one of the greatest tragedies of modern Dutch history is both deeply human and of mythical proportions.

Translation in Chinese

  • Moor, Margriet de. [Mieding] Chinese / translated from the Dutch by Zhaohui Qiang. Shanghai: Shanghai Literature and Arts Publishing House, 2010. ISBN:9787532137022.

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