Virago, 320 p., August 2024

Original title: Ik ga leven, Uitgeverij Prometheus

Synopsis:

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
Longlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize 2025

‘Sex-rich … its bravery and sensuality are undeniable’ Telegraph

Büsra is living a double life. At home with her parents, life is an endless argument – about what time she comes home, about what she wears, and most of all, about how the rules apply only to her, while her brother Halil enjoys free rein.

But out in the world, everything is different. Büsra is studying Dutch literature at university, and she reads everything she can get her hands on. She works at a restaurant, where she wears tight dresses and serves alcohol. And her biggest secret of all: she has a boyfriend, and she is passionately and sinfully in love with him.

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by Tobi Lakmaker, translated by Kristen Gehrman

Granta, 181 p., January 2024

Original title: De geschiedenis van mijn sexualiteit, Das Mag

Synopsis

‘The history of my sexuality is as follows: I have always been looking for someone to close all the doors and windows, someone who would say, okay, that’s enough now. More precisely, first I was into men and later into women, but really always into women…into so many women really-but I kept my eyes and another crucial body part tightly closed. Not that any of that actually matters.’

Meet Sofie, a young woman living in Amsterdam who feels unfeminine and is more attracted to women than to men. She feels she’s wrong about pretty much everything: ‘About the boys and the girls, the right answer and – much more importantly – the right question’. This history of her sexuality begins with the loss of her virginity and ends right before she starts to visit the hospital where you can become ‘less of a girl and more of a boy’.Will she ever untangle the impossible knot of sex, love, loneliness, learning, family relationships and grief that constitutes a life? Does it even matter?

Razor-sharp and unconventional, this dazzlingly witty debut novel – a sensation on publication in Europe – challenges, surprises and entertains in equal measure.

Reviews

“When you travel as a girl, you don’t learn anything about the world. All you learn is that there’s a way of looking at the world that doesn’t belong to you,” says twentysomething protagonist Sofie Lakmaker, who shares a surname and major biographical details with her author. The History of My Sexuality, translated from Dutch by Kristen Gehrman, charts Sofie’s coming of age.” – The Guardian

“Lakmaker’s version of millennial coming-of-age romance stands apart for its unmatched ability simply to keep the wisecracks coming…Hats off, too, to the translator, Kristen Gehrman.” – Daily Mail

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This incredible true story recounts the harrowing journey of a young black man from Suriname, Waldemar, who comes to Holland before WWII and falls in love with Rika, an older Dutch woman who has recently left her Protestant husband. Together they have a son, their little ‘Sonny Boy’, and manage, even in those puritanical pre-war years, to thrive in the liberal beachside town of Scheveningen, where–against all odds–they run a successful guesthouse by the sea. Despite the discrimination they face, despite pressure from Rika’s family, despite the economic crisis, despite everything, they manage to build a happy life and a loving home for their little boy and Rika’s other children. When the Nazis arrive, Scheveningen is transformed into a military base, and eventually, Rika and Waldemar’s home becomes a haven for Jews and Resistance fighters in hiding. The Boy Between Worlds is a story about a brave and controversial couple, who, even though they were largely rejected by Dutch society, were still able to find it in their hearts to help others. It’s about the immeasurable impact of the war and all the tragedy and contradictions that came with it. And it’s about their mixed-race son, Waldy, who bears the burden of his parents’ bravery and grows up a boy between worlds.

The book is available in select bookstores (seen here at Athenaeum in Amsterdam) and on Amazon. If you do get around to reading it, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Be sure to stick with it until the very end!

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