16
FEATURE DUTCH LESSONS
21.10.16
www.thebookseller.com
Low Countries: lofty ideals T
wenty-three million people speak Dutch as a first language, and every year they spend a total of
around €400m on books. What are Dutch speakers reading? What are the nation’s trends? And what can the British book trade learn from their counterparts in the Low Countries—and vice versa? To find out what is happening on the shop floor in the Netherlands and Flanders, I spoke with some of the leading booksellers across the two regions. First, I was curious to see what booksellers thought were the hottest trends. Maarten Asscher, director of the world-famous bookshop Athenaeum Boekhandel in Amsterdam, sees a new generation of Dutch-language writers flourishing. Some have already been translated into English—Herman Koch, Esther Gerritsen, Arnon Grunberg—but many younger ones, like Niña Weijers, Roos van Rijswijk, Nina Polak and the brothers Thomas and Daan Heerma van Voss, are still largely unknown in the UK. Asscher says: “These authors are writing in a more cosmopolitan, more internationally focused way than the previous generation. Their stories reflect a wider and more complex world than that of the authors of the post-war period. Dutch literary culture is teeming with energy and writers are more engaged than ever in the public debate.” Suzanne Hammecher is the co-owner of Donner Bookshop in Rotterdam— formerly part of the Selexyz mini- chain and the biggest bookstore in the Netherlands. She remarked on a striking increase in bestsellers with older people as protagonists: “More established authors are writing novels with characters’ relationships with their mothers as a central theme.” Over the border in Flanders, Iris
Stroep, owner of the bookshop Groene Waterman in Antwerp, highlighted a new generation of readers interested
Veteran Dutch publisher Eric Visser, who has business interests on both sides of the Channel, talks to booksellers in Flanders and the Netherlands about the Dutch market
in feminism, particularly icons such as two contemporary feminist authors, Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and American Roxane Gay. Literary non-fiction is trending too, she says, in particular science, nature and history, inspired by Anglophone books such as Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk. An interesting trend all the booksellers I spoke to noted was the surge in UK publishers selling English- language titles directly into the Dutch/ Flemish market. Asscher attributes this, simply, to a growing number of Dutch readers wanting to read in English, particularly Millennials.
REACHING READERS It is also interesting to examine how booksellers and publishers go about engaging customers. There are, of course, the more familiar routes to readers, such as reviews in quality newspapers. But Hammercher notes that bloggers, Goodreads and social
media in general play a huge part. Literary prizes—especially for “the
Dutch Booker”, the Libris Literatuur Prijs—and the nomination circus that precedes them are still a huge factor in the publicity machine around books. The same goes for promotional visits by foreign authors who have a translated book coming out, says Asscher. There are a number of TV talk-shows featuring books, which have created
Pictured top is Antwerp bookshop Groene Waterman, which hosts events with the likes of Belgian novelist Tom Lanoye above
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32
