Engelse lof voor The Discomfort of the Evening (De avond is ongemak) van Marieke Lucas Rijneveld

Deze week wordt bekend of de Engelse vertaling van De avond is ongemak van Marieke Lucas Rijneveld op de shortlist van de prestigieuze International Man Booker Prize 2020 komt.

Haar in januari 2018 in Nederland gepubliceerde debuutroman verscheen begin januari bij Faber & Faber als The Discomfort of Evening (vertaald door Michele Hutchison) en krijgt veel lof in de Engelse pers:

‘One of the best debut novels I have ever read. Shockingly good. Utterly unforgettable … A classic.’- Max Porter

‘Translator Michele Hutchison deftly switches between registers and gives Jas a strong, unique voice . . . the novel will find admirers . . . for its poetic, mannered language, realistic bleakness and descent into surreal darkness.’ Theodora Danek in The Guardian, Book of the Day

‘The electricity in this book comes from the use of that blank narrative style to deliver a sort of Grand Guignol grotesquerie.’ – The Times

‘An unflinching study of a family falling apart in the madness of grief, rendered all the more unnerving for the childishly plain, undramatic way their compulsive behaviors are reported . . . Translated by Michele Hutchison, Rijneveld’s writing is raw and impassive, though often grotesquely vivid in its descriptions . . . A pretty remarkable debut. Confident in its brutality, yet contained rather than gratuitous, it introduces readers to both a memorably off-key narrator and a notable new talent.’ – The Observer

‘An unsettling exploration of a family dealing with a sudden death . . . A strong debut. Rijneveld’s poetic prose, eloquently translated by Michele Hutchison, clashes and rattles against the horrors it describes, a constant fight between terror and beauty. It is a novel that does its best to make sure you won’t forget it anytime soon.’ – The Irish Times

‘Thanks to a fine translation by Michele Hutchison, English readers can experience the novel’s heady imagery and sensory language . . . A visceral portrait of a devout family dealing with grief and the result is both haunting and beautiful.’ – Monocle

‘(one of the) Ten of the best new books in translation.’– The Guardian

‘The 28-year-old Dutch dairy farmer Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s The Discomfort of Evening (Faber, March), translated by Michelle Hutchison, is a rich and luminous novel about fate and grief. It is already a bestseller in Holland. ‘ – The Guardian

‘Already a hit in the author’s native Netherlands, this unsparing debut, set on a Dutch dairy farm, shows with total absorption how one family reacts when confronted with the burden of grief. Marked by intense, poignant imagery and the stirring narration of middle daughter Jas, Marieke Lucas has done something extraordinary with this astonishing (and really quite disgusting) novel, which will stay in the mind long after reading.’ – Another UK

‘Poet Marieke Lucas Rijneveld is the literary name to know in The Netherlands, so no surprise their novel was longlisted for the Dutch equivalent of the booker Prize and quickly became a bestseller. Religion and present-day rural life provide the tragic backdrop for this story, which traces a dairy farmer’s daughter as she copes with the aftermath of her young brother’s death in an ice-skating accident. It is equally gripping in translation.’– Vogue UK