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De bloemen
The Flowers
ISBN: 9789085422082
By: Koen Peeters
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WINNER OF THE F. BORDEWIJK PRIZE 2010
SHORTLISTED FOR THE AKO LITERATURE AWARD 2010
Are you still a son if your parents are dead? In The Flowers, Koen Peeters tells how the lives of grandfathers, fathers and sons can run one into the other. He provides an increasingly sharp image of how this world is made by people and, at the same time, how unmakeable we are ourselves.
Somewhere around 1900. Louis, the youngest of a farming family, is ten. He sees his very best friend, a pig, being slaughtered. At that moment, he decides to be a butter and egg merchant when he grows up. He succeeds. Louis also dreams of starting a big business, too, but that plan comes to nothing. His son, René, is an exemplary student, becomes involved in the youth movement and finally enters politics. He is ambushed after a political meeting and seriously wounded. And the son of the third generation, the narrator of this story, goes in search of traces of his forefathers.
In The Flowers, Koen Peeters re-invents the family novel. The result is a book that is as subtle as it is moving, in which nostalgia is supported by the writer’s affable sensitivity and alert intelligence. The last word in the book is addressed to God. For Louis, that God is still highly tangible and approachable. For René he is a divine spark. For the narrator not even that. God appears and disappears. The landscape changes dramatically, but we don’t.
About the author
Koen Peeters (°1959) was awarded the New Yang prize for his debut, Conversations with K. Subsequent works include Visit Our Cellars, The Postman (NCR prize), It Isn’t Serious, Mon Amour (Province of Flemish Brabant’s Literature Prize), Acacia Lane (long list AKO Literature Prize), Mr Shaman and the collection of poems, Fine Motor System. His generally acclaimed Great European Novel made the shortlist of the 2008 Libris Literature Prize.
Press quotes:
‘The Flowers is one of Koen Peeters’ better books, in which his sadness and anger provide the irony with shadow and depth, while the language remains controlled and simple, without seeking any far extremes’ — deredactie.be
‘A book that, with its deep humanity, can be seen as a tender literary tribute to Peeters’ father and grandfather, but which, at the same time, is a universal novel about life itself’ — cuttingedge.be
‘The Flowers is a nostalgic novel without complexes. And yet it is a universal book’ — knack.rnews.be
‘Peeters creates likeable characters, shows that the family chronicle is a vital genre and is a terribly good storyteller’ — recensieweb.nl
Fiction, Literary Fiction
242 pages
Original title: De bloemen
World rights available
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