ZAre you also in a pool? No, not for the European Championships, but for the Libris Literature Prize. It will be awarded next Monday, so it’s time for one educated guess. Who will walk away with the honor, eternal fame and the pot of 50 thousand euros?
Area 19 by Esther Gerritsen? Mwa. I don’t see much in the science fiction story about humanity’s move to another planet. In its jury report the jury speaks of ‘a special book’ – and thanks it.
The unintentional ones by Cobi van Baars, about twin sisters who are placed in different adoptive families after birth, is a book that you can briefly classify as ‘good’, but it is not a real stunner. The jury describes it in sober words such as ‘smart’, ’empathetic’, ‘subtle’ and ‘not just an adoption story’.
Also Tosca by Maud Vanhauwaert it is not quite there. Yes, you could safely call it a ‘sizzling, challenging debut’, as the jury does. But the story about the twisted relationship between an extremely troubled teenage girl and a translator of Russian poetry also has something exasperating, perhaps a little too much.
That leaves three books that I think have about an equal chance. The invisible ones by Frank Nellen is about the former socialist regime in Ukraine, wrapped in a wonderful story about the wonderful boy Pavel and his comrades. ‘Nellen shows with his novel what good art can do,’ said the jury. Pooh, what good art can do – if you come across big words like that in a jury report, you should pay attention.
Just like with the word virtuoso. The Librisjury uses it for: I will come back to this by Rob van Essen. Indeed, Van Essen shows in this irresistible novel – about the journalist Rob Hollander who wants to correct a small wrong while traveling through the 1990s – that he is one of our best writers. Only: Van Essen already won the Libris Prize once, in 2019 with The good son. The jury will solemnly swear that it doesn’t matter, but still…
Then they would rather choose that other very good book: Listen by Sascha Bronwasser. The layered novel about Marie who goes to work as an au pair in Paris has been on a triumphal journey since its publication. The book was in the 60 bestseller list for almost fifty weeks and is in its 24th edition. The jury not only uses the words ‘iron strong’ and ‘compelling’ but also ‘magisterial’; in jury language the Word of Words. That’s what I’m putting my money on.
