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A Stuga On the Cusp of the Orust Riviera, tucked away next to a hobbit hole in the woods.
The Detour
bookshelves: impac-longlist, published-2010, one-penny-wonder, paper-read, britain-wales, dutch, autumn-2013, translation, bucolic-or-pastoral, lit-richer, ouch, medical-eew, lifestyles-deathstyles, dog-steals-the-show, plague-disease
Read on November 19, 2013
aka Ten White Geese
Description: A Dutch woman, a university English lecturer researching the work of Emily Dickinson, rents a farm in remote, rural Wales. When she arrives, there are ten geese living on the farm, but one by one they disappear. Perhaps it's the work of a local fox. The reason for her move abroad gradually becomes clear: her husband is trying to track her down. Having confessed to an affair with one of her students in Amsterdam, she has quietly fled to Wales from a situation that had become unbearable. Her husband contacts the police and teams up with a detective to go and look for her. They board the ferry to Hull on Christmas Eve. But in the meantime, the woman increasingly seems to be losing her grip on the situation. Gerbrand Bakker has made the territories of isolation, inner turmoil and the solace offered by the natural world his own. The Detour is a gripping and subtle new novel.
Translated from the Dutch by David Colmer
Opening: Early one morning she saw the badgers. They were near the stone circle she had discovered a few days earlier and wanted to see at dawn.
Immediate impression is that this isTen Little Nigger Boys And Then There Were None but with geese and pastoral scenery rather than champers on an rocky islet. There are badgers, a flock of sinister sheep, intermittent black Friesian cows, and a somewhat menacing druidic stone circle situated just past the kissing gate.
Perfection.
Inside the front cover it states that The Twin will soon be made into a film.
3.5* The Twin
5* The Detour
Description: A Dutch woman, a university English lecturer researching the work of Emily Dickinson, rents a farm in remote, rural Wales. When she arrives, there are ten geese living on the farm, but one by one they disappear. Perhaps it's the work of a local fox. The reason for her move abroad gradually becomes clear: her husband is trying to track her down. Having confessed to an affair with one of her students in Amsterdam, she has quietly fled to Wales from a situation that had become unbearable. Her husband contacts the police and teams up with a detective to go and look for her. They board the ferry to Hull on Christmas Eve. But in the meantime, the woman increasingly seems to be losing her grip on the situation. Gerbrand Bakker has made the territories of isolation, inner turmoil and the solace offered by the natural world his own. The Detour is a gripping and subtle new novel.
Translated from the Dutch by David Colmer
Emily Dickinson
Ample make his bed
Make his bed with awe;
In it will judgement break
Excellent and fair.
Be its mattress straight,
Be its pillow round
Let no sunrise yellow noise
Interrupt this ground.
Opening: Early one morning she saw the badgers. They were near the stone circle she had discovered a few days earlier and wanted to see at dawn.
Immediate impression is that this is
Perfection.
Inside the front cover it states that The Twin will soon be made into a film.
3.5* The Twin
5* The Detour
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