Fien Veldman & Jente Posthuma
Jente Posthuma and Fien Veldman at Wigtown Book Festival
We're delighted to welcome two extraordinary novelists from the Netherlands who are pushing the boundaries and rethinking what fiction can do. In Hard Copy, Fien Veldman tells the story of a customer service assistant who falls in love with the office printer. To her it seems like a beautiful friendship is blooming, to her boss it seems like she's losing her mind. In What I'd Rather Not Think About, Jente Posthuma asks: What if one half of a pair of twins no longer lives - and what if the other cannot live without them? It's the story of a depressive brother viewed from the perspective of the sister who both loves and resents her twin, and struggles to understand him while missing him terribly. The book was shortlisted for the European Union Prize for Literature in 2021 and the International Booker Prize 2024.
About the authors
Fien Veldman is the 2021 recipient of the Joost Zwagerman Essay Award for her essay "Not really making it", about growing up in a working-class neighbourhood in Leeuwarden. In 2018 she won the Elise Mathilde Essay Award for her essay "Borders, doors and eyes open". Hard Copy is her debut novel.
Jente Posthuma's critically acclaimed first novel, Mensen zonder uitstraling (People Without Charisma), was published in 2016 and nominated for the Dioraphte Literatour Prize, the Hebban Debut Prize and the ANV Debut Prize.
New Dutch Writing Showcase (wigtownbookfestival.com)
Wed 2 Oct 12:00 pm
Venue: Print Room