Levine Querido, 408 p. June 2025

Synopsis:

Denmark, 870 AD. Yrsa knows her place in the village of Mimir’s Stool. Though she was born with a crooked foot, she’s never let anyone underestimate her; after all, she’s the daughter of Toke the helmsman and granddaughter of the fearsome warrior Gudrun the Torch (who, according to legend, stood before the walls of Paris, splattered in the blood of Frankish warriors). And no one else in the village shares her ability to see what the Norns, the three weavers who live under the roots of Yggdrasil, the world tree, and craft people’s fates, have in store for them.

One day the men return from a raid with a high-ranking hostage, Sister Job, and though the two girls couldn’t be more different, they look out for one another. And when one of the villagers viciously assaults Sister Job and she and Yrsa mortally wound him in self-defense, they’re forced to take to the sea to escape the wrath of the warriors of Mimir’s Stool, and worse, the wrath of the gods. Can either of them escape their fate? Do they even want to?

From the acclaimed author of Ironhead, or, Once a Young Lady, comes Daughter of Doom, a dark historical adventure about fate, faith, and free will set on the rollicking seas in the age of Vikings.

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The Vondel Prize is awarded every three years for an outstanding literary translation from Dutch to English. The prize was awarded by the Society of Authors and the Dutch Foundation for Literature at the British Library in London on 12 February 2025. The jury consisted of David Doherty, Claire Lowdon and Susan Massotty.

From the jury report:

 ‘Running the gamut from broad comedy to brittle vulnerability, Gehrman instantly establishes a gutsy, assured voice that effortlessly matches the pace and punch of Lakmaker’s bold, highly idiosyncratic narrative of self-discovery. The humour is often ebullient but never strained: Gehrman delivers laugh-out-loud lines with crisp comic timing, yet hits the mark just as effectively when handling the novel’s darker undercurrents and raw, intimate moments, which she does with disarming directness and haunting clarity. In short, an extraordinary feat of balance, finesse and emotional range – one that Gehrman pulls off in style.’

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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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by Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem, translated by Kristen Gehrman

Levine Querido, 368 p., February 2022

Original title: IJzerkop, Querido

Synopsis

Four months into the marriage, she can slip out of their bed in the middle of the night, and she can put on his clothes. She can look in the mirror and like what she sees. She can sneak out of the house before dawn and visit the baker’s scrawny son, who has just been drafted into the army, and offer to take his place. Vive l’Empereur!

Hot on Stance’s tail all the while is her younger brother Pieter, determined to bring Stance back home to Ghent where she belongs. (The battlefield is no place for a young lady, after all.)

Ironhead, or, Once A Young Lady is the riotous and powerful story of a fierce renegade, and the silly men who try to bring her down.

Reviews

“Rowdy and contemplative in turn, this celebration of historical gender nonconformity is as compelling as it is fun.” -Publisher’s Weekly

“A perfect choice for fans of adventure tales with a prominent feminist streak.”—Booklist Online

“Vivid and brutal—but not without a sliver of hope.” –Kirkus Reviews

“Thrilling, often hilarious, and sometimes tear-jerking, this romp of a story is reminiscent of classic adventure tales such as The Three Musketeers.” – BCCB

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Picador / Pan Macmillan, 416 p, May 21, 2021

Original title: Het smelt, Das Mag

Synopsis

Challenging and disturbing, The Melting is an incredibly cruel fable about friendship and adolescence . . . Spit knows no fear. It is we, the readers, that are left trembling.’ – Leïla Slimani, author of Lullaby

Eva can trace the route to Pim’s farm with her eyes closed, even though she has not been to Bovenmeer for many years. There she grew up among the rape fields and dairy farms. There lies also the root of all their grief.

Eva was one of three children born in her small Flemish town in 1988. Growing up alongside the boys Laurens and Pim, Eva sought refuge from her loveless family life in the company of her two friends. But with adolescence came a growing awareness of their burgeoning sexuality. Driven by their newly found desires, the children begin a game that will have serious and violent consequences for them all.

Thirteen years after the summer she’s tried for so long to forget, Eva is returning to her village. Everything fell apart that summer, but this time she’ll be prepared. She has a large block of ice in her car boot and she’s ready to settle the score.

Part thriller, part coming-of-age novel, The Melting is an extraordinary and unsettling debut from Lize Spit, a reckoning with adolescent cruelty and the scars it leaves.

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Amazon Crossing, 293 p., Aug 1, 2020

Original title: De stamhouder: een familiekroniek, Prometheus

Synopsis

A prize-winning Dutch journalist’s unsparing memoir of growing up amid the excesses, triumphs, and devastation of post–World War II Europe.

What can a son say upon discovering that his father wore a Nazi uniform? Reporter Alexander Münninghoff was only four when he found this mortifying relic from his father’s recent past in his attic. This shameful memento came to symbolize not only his father’s tragically misguided allegiance but also a shattered marriage and ultimately the unconscionable separation of a mother and son.

In this revelatory memoir, the author confronts his parents’ complex past as he reconstructs the fortunes and disillusions of an entire family upheaved during the changes of twentieth-century Europe. The Münninghoffs were driven by greed, rebellion, and rage. An embattled dynasty, they were torn between the right and the wrong side of history. Their saga haunted Alexander’s life for the next seventy years.

Only in reconciling with them can this man find the courage to move forward as son and heir to the startling legacy of a flawed yet grand tradition.

More than 10,000 reader reviews on Amazon!

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