OLIVER

OLIVER (OLIVER)
year:

2015

genre:

young adult novel, 220 p.

publisher:

Querido, Amsterdam

age:

15+
awards:
Gouden Lijst 2016 (Golden Frame, Best book for younth)

OLIVER is a novel about the sixteen-year old Norwegian boy Oliver Kjelsberg, two years before he will meet the Dutch Tycho Zeling - so, two years before the events descibed in my novel THE DAYS OF BLUEGRASSLOVE. 
OLIVER has great parents, it's summer holiday, he is progressing in his biggest hobby: playing football (he's a goalkeeper), and he has a best friend, Bendik, who is also his nephew. Oliver is not a talker, but does he need to be? 
Well, in this book, all of a sudden his parent's marriage collapses, and within a day some more things happen that make the world seem a whole lot different than Oliver and Bendik always had believed. How do these two boys cope with the scope of events that they are forced to face?

- This book is meant to be read separately. But it could also be seen as a prequel to THE DAYS OF BLUEGRASSLOVE and, in a way, as a sequel to OUR THIRD BODY.
THE DAYS OF BLUEGRASSLOVE slightly deals with 'love',  OUR THIRD BODY with 'friendships' and OLIVER with 'family'. But that's just an indication.

- Together with this book an updated version of the 15-year old THE DAYS OF BLUEGRASSLOVE was released.

THE SWEETNESS OF BULLYING

HET LEKKERE VAN PESTEN (THE SWEETNESS OF BULLYING)
year:

2011

genre:

non-fiction, 144 p.

publisher:

Athenaeum, Amsterdam

age:

(young) adults

I started writing this non-fiction book about bullying as a book for young adults, but gradually it became a book for adults, and so publishing house Athenaeum was so kind to issue it. For the book I met male model Julian van Dalen. He has a huge career in international fashion-modelling, but was bullied in school for as long as he can remember. The first part of the book is a collection of his memories. In the second part he was so generous to let me speak to all of those who had something to do with these episodes: his brother, his teachers, his friends and... the bullies themselves. Their interviews give a deeper insight on how these problems could come about and how they were dealt with. The book closes with an essay that Julian and I wrote together.

THE BOY WHO FOUND HAPPINESS

DE GELUKVINDER (THE BOY WHO FOUND HAPPINESS)
year:

2008

genre:

young adult novel, 336 p.

publisher:

Querido, Amsterdam

age:

15+
awards:
Glazen Globe 2009 (Best geographical youth book)
Jenny Smelik IBBYprijs 2010 (Best children's/youth book about cultural diversity)
Esel des Monats September 2012 (Germany)
nominated:
Gouden Lijst 2009 (Best book for youth)
Buxtehuder Bulle 2012 (Germany, runner up)
Premi de Literatura Protagoniste Jove 2012/2013 (Spain, Catalan)
Kulturdepartementets Oversettelseprisen 2014 (Norway, for the translation)
foreign editions:
German (Carlsen)
Norwegian (Cappelen Damm)
Spanish (Spain) (SM)
Catalan (Cruïlla)
Spanish (Mexico, SM)

This novel, which is very dear to me, is based on the true life-story of Anoush Elman (17). It was the first book in the Slash-series, a concept I initiated and that was kindly adopted by my publishing house Querido. In this series well-known authors team up with a younger person - to use their stories as the basic idea for their novel (so the books are 'based on a true story'). Because of this procedure these books try to reflect important tendencies or issues from modern society. THE BOY WHO FOUND HAPPINESS is about the young Hamayun, who has to flee with his family out of Afghanistan, after extreme threats by the Taliban. It's also about the difficult and amazing secret travel they made from Kabul to Western Europa ánd it's about being in a refugee shelter for many, many years, waiting til Immigration Offices make their decision - or not. The subject of this book sounds highly political, but Anoush wanted to tell me not just the bad things, but the good parts as well. 'For me it's actually a book about friendship,' he said, 'friendship and being at home.' I'm still in close contact with Anoush and his family, and this has enriched not only my profession, but also my life.

- The Dutch Translation Fund made a special on this book, to be found here.

- The book was also published as a novel for adults.
- The Slash-series consists of 13 more books, by other authors and other young storytellers.

CHATBOX

CHATBOX
year:

2006

genre:

poetry, young adult, 48 p.

publisher:

Querido, Amsterdam

age:

15+
rights sold:
English (USA) (A midsummer night's press) (selection of the poems, together with a selection of poems of my book QUOTATION MARKS)

As I wrote the novel OUR THIRD BODY, something extraordinary happened: I started writing poetry with somebody else's hand - with Tycho Zelings hand, the 19 years old main character of that novel. A separate volume was published, containing his/mine poems about the angers and joys of young people living in a big city, and, most of all, poems about love and the fire that goes with it.

- Some of the poems are available in German, translated by Rolf Erdorf.

OUR THIRD BODY

ONS DERDE LICHAAM (OUR THIRD BODY)
year:

2006

genre:

young adult novel, 304 p.

publisher:

Querido, Amsterdam

age:

15+
awards:
Gouden Zoen 2007 (Golden Kiss Award, best book for youth)
foreign editions:
German (Carlsen), French (Thierry Magnier)

OUR THIRD BODY is the second book about the Dutch Tycho Zeling and his Norwegian love Oliver Kjelsberg, after they had met in THE DAYS OF BLUEGRASSLOVE. But it's half a year later, and they haven't talked to eachother. Tycho moves out of his parent's place, starts a writing training and meets the flamboyant Vonda, who soon becomes his best friend. She is a singer, and together with the third person living in their student's home, dancer Moritz, they enroll in giant adventures: that of the participation (for Vonda) in the Eurovision Song Contest, but especially the needs and requirements, the faithfulness and the betrayal that all can be part of a friendship under pressure. And how about Oliver? Is Tycho still in his mind - like Oliver is in his?

- This book follows THE DAYS OF BLUEGRASSLOVE (but can be read separately) and comes with the poetry volume CHATBOX (poetry written by Tycho). In 2015 a third novel about these main characters was published (a prequel, called OLIVER).
- The song 'Our third body', part of the book, was recorded! Singer Renée van Wegberg and composer Edwin Schimscheimer teamed up. The song can be listened to below.

QUOTATION MARKS

AANHALINGSTEKENS (QUOTATION MARKS)
year:

2000

genre:

poetry, 48 p.

publisher:

Querido, Amsterdam

age:

15+
rights sold:
English (USA) (A midsummer night's press) (selection of the poems, together with a selection of poems of my book CHATBOX)

This third volume of poetry contained poems about love, about sensuality, as well as a sequence about sports and one where I wrote poems to six famous classical paintings (also depicted in the book). The wonderful bookdesign was done by Barbara van Dongen Torman.

THE DAYS OF BLUEGRASSLOVE

Cover of the third edition

DE DAGEN VAN DE BLUEGRASSLIEFDE (THE DAYS OF BLUEGRASSLOVE)
year:

1999

genre:

young adult novel, 148 p.

publisher:

Querido, Amsterdam

age:

15+
awards:
Gouden Zoen 2000 (Golden Kiss Award, best book for youth)
foreign editions:
German (Carlsen)
Latvian (Liels un Mazs)
English (USA, Levine Querido)

Cover of the second edition

My first young adult novel, and still in print! It's an intense lovestory - between Tycho (18) from Holland and Oliver (18) from Norway. They meet in a youth camp in the USA and fall in love. The book is all about experiencing your first life-changing love-affair (in this case: between two boys), and trying to find your way in this new reality.

Second German cover

- The Dutch Translation Fund made a special on this book - here.
- A proof translation in English is available.
- There were two German editions. First it was published under the title SPRING WENN DU DICH TRAUST, later it was re-issued as DIE TAGE DER BLUEGRASSLIEBE.
- In 2006 I wrote a folllow-up to this book, ONS DERDE LICHAAM (OUR THIRD BODY), and in 2015 a prequel was published, OLIVER.