Read the world #1

Read Around The World challenges are popping up on a lot of platforms at the moment, and we love to see it! I am personally doing a European challenge, because there are a lot of countries where I have never read a book from. (And honestly, reading a book from every country in the world makes me overwhelmed – so I’m thinking of doing this continent by continent). Anyway, if you want to join in on this challenge, we’re here to help you. In the upcoming year we will be sharing our best recs – and I’m kicking off as a Dutchie with 10 books from The Netherlands you should read.

LITERARY FICTION

Thistle – Nadia de Vries

I love to read weird girl literature. I’m totally the Ottessa Moshfesh kind of girl who also loves Japanese books such as The Girl Who Turned Into A Pair of Chopsticks and The Hole. Thistle is written beautifully, covering themes like girlhood, sexuality and grief.

Thistle is a young woman whose father, a pilot, dies suddenly in a plane crash when she is thirteen years old. The airline’s compensation pay out is substantial but doesn’t assuage the family’s grief. By the time she is seventeen, Thistle has lost most of her teenage years trying to make sense of her father’s premature death. In the meantime, her body is developing, and she finds herself sexualized and objectified by men against her will. Teenaged Thistle is increasingly aware of her allure but unsure of how to use that to her advantage. When her mother gifts her a camera, Thistle decides to turn the lens on herself, capturing her nude body in various poses just before she turns eighteen.

Hard Copy – Fien Veldman

This is one of my favourite Dutch books! If you liked Sayaka Murata and Halle Butler, this one is for you. This is a story about a customer service assistant who meets a printer (and talks to it) and spends her long workdays printing letters. Her one friend is the printer and, in the dark confines of her office, she begins to open up to him, talking about her fears, her past, her hopes and dreams. To her, it seems like a beautiful friendship is blossoming. To her boss, it seems like she’s losing her mind. Diagnosed with burnout and placed on leave, she faces severance and – worse – separation from her beloved printer. But she’s not about to give up on her only friend without a fight. And, it turns out, neither is he. Give this debut novel a chance, you won’t regret it!

Mary, or The Birth of Frankenstein – Anne Eekhout

Looking for a historical fiction with some dark academia vibes? And did you love Frankenstein? Put Mary by Anne Eekhout on your list. It tells a fictional story about Mary’s early years, before she wrote the popular classic. ‘A bold new framing for questions about where we draw lines: between queerness and heterosexuality, the natural and the unnatural, and the imaginary and the real…’, wrote The New Yorker.

As darkness falls and storms rage over Lake Geneva, a group of friends gather in a candle-lit-villa. Among them are eighteen-year-old Mary and her mercurial lover Percy Shelley. As laudanum stirs their feverish imaginations, their host Lord Byron challenges everyone to write a ghost story. Suddenly Mary is transported back to a long, strange summer in the wilds of Scotland, where she fell in love with the enigmatic Isabella Baxter. As she remembers, something fierce and terrifying awakes within her. Now she will unleash it into the world.

GRAPHIC NOVELS

The Philosopher, the Dog and the Wedding – Barbara Stok

Looking for a graphic novel? I would recommend this one by Barbara Stok, which is about Hipparchia, one of the first female philosophers. This book shows us that the insights from thousands of years ago are still relevant today. Crates and Hipparchia were part of the cynical philosophy. In ancient Athens, the Cynics formed a provocative movement against all conventional values. One of their fundamental principles was that we can only attain true happiness if we are independent of material possessions and social position. Hipparchia was a strong woman who had the courage to live by her own ideals, despite all the prevailing beliefs of her time.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Movies Showing Nowhere – Yorick Goldewijk

A middle grade read that won a lot of prizes in The Netherlands is Movies Showing Nowhere by Yorick Goldewijk. And I can see why, because this book made me tear up several times and showed me how to deal with grief. It’s stunning, a children’s book that you want to recommend to everyone despite their age. If you like books by Rebecca Stead, you will love Yorick Goldewijk.
On the day Cate came into the world, her mum left it. Her dad is often distant and silent, so she keeps herself entertained with kung fu films, her pet rabbit and her photography. Then one afternoon Cate receives a mysterious invitation to an abandoned cinema, and everything changes. Soon Cate meets the peculiar Mrs Kano and discovers a most unusual kind of movie screen – the kind that lets you step through it into a memory. So begins a wonder-filled adventure through time that will teach Cate the true meaning of love, loss and learning to let go.

Lampie (UK) or Of Salt And Shore (USA) – Annet Schaap

This middle grade novel takes the dark stuff of fairytales and crafts it into a powerful story of friendship and light. An absolute bestseller in The Netherlands. If you like books set by the coast, want something hopeful and love fairytales – you’ll love Lampie. I read this book a few years ago and I’m still thinking about it.
Every evening Lampie, the lighthouse keeper’s daughter, must light a lantern to warn ships away from the rocks, but one stormy night disaster strikes. The lantern is not lit, a ship is wrecked, and someone must pay. To work off her debt, Lampie is banished to the Admiral’s lonely house, where a monster is rumored to live. The terrors inside the house aren’t quite what she thought they would be – they are even stranger. After Lampie saves the life of the neglected, deformed son of the admiral, a boy she calls Fish, they form a
close bond. Soon they are pulled into a fairytale adventure swimming with mermaids, pirates, and misfits. Lampie will discover the courage to fight for friendship, knowledge, and the freedom to be different.

NONFICTION

Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City – Russell Shorto

Do you want to read more about the history of The Netherlands, and specifically Amsterdam? Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City is the one to go for. Tourists know Amsterdam as a picturesque city of low-slung brick houses lining tidy canals; student travellers know it for its legal brothels and hash bars; art lovers know it for Rembrandt’s glorious portraits. But the deeper history is all about freedom, liberalism and protests.
Amsterdam is the font of liberalism, in both its senses. Tolerance for free thinking and free love make it a place where, in the words of one of its mayors, “craziness is a value.” But the city also fostered the deeper meaning of liberalism, one that profoundly influenced America: political and economic freedom. Amsterdam was home not only to religious dissidents and radical thinkers but to the world’s first great global corporation.

Why the Dutch are Different – Ben Coates

Coates, who is originally from England moved to The Netherlands accidentally and never left. In his books he writes about his experiences with the Dutch – from their directness to their love for cheese. A fun, light and quick read for it you want to know more about the Dutch culture. In this book Coates takes readers into the heart of his adopted country, going beyond the usual tourist attractions and cliches to explore what it is that makes the Dutch the Dutch, the difference between Holland and the Netherlands, and why the colour orange so important. A travelogue, a history and a personal account of a changing country.

The Diary of Anne Frank – Anne Frank

A must-read since it’s one of the most enduring documents of the 20th century: The Diary of Anne Frank. Even if you don’t live in The Netherlands, you must have heard of Anne Frank. Anne was a Jewish girl that lived in Amsterdam in the 1940s. When Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands, Anne and her family hid in an attic in an attempt to escape the persecution of Jews. For over two years, Anne wrote in her diary with an awareness that was extremely mature for her age. She detailed her experiences and insights while she and her family were in hiding, living in a constant fear of being arrested. The Diary of Anne Frank is a record of her understanding of the war and showcases her storytelling abilities in such horrific circumstances. In 1944, the Franks were found and sent to concentration camps. Anne died before she turned 16.

If you want to join in on this blog series and would like to recommend books from your own country, feel free to send us an email to jenny@bookinfluencers.com!