Marie Darrieussecq

Daniel Galera

Eef Lanoye

Garth Risk Hallberg (1978) rose to stardom overnight in October 2015 when an American publishing paid a record amount for his 900-page debut novel 

 (which he thought was unpublishable) for six years.

The novel brings together a cast of characters, beginning with an attempted murder in Central Park on New Year’s Eve 1976, and concluding it with the New York blackout of July 1977. 

Peter Buwalda (1971) is an author (he wrote - amongst other things – the international bestseller 

) and also an expert on American literature. Maarten Dessing will lead this double interview with Buwalda and Hallberg.

New York City, 1976. Meet Regan and William Hamilton-Sweeney, estranged heirs to one of the city’s great fortunes; Keith and Mercer, the men who, for better or worse, love them; Charlie and Samantha, two suburban teenagers seduced by downtown’s punk scene; an obsessive magazine reporter and his idealistic neighbor—and the detective trying to figure out what any of them have to do with a shooting in Central Park on New Year’s Eve. 

The mystery, as it reverberates through families, friendships, and the corridors of power, will open up even the loneliest-seeming corners of the crowded city. And when the blackout of July 13, 1977, plunges this world into darkness, each of these lives will be changed forever. 

 is a novel about love and betrayal and forgiveness, about art and truth and rock ’n’ roll: about what people need from each other in order to live, and about what makes the living worth doing in the first place.The Dutch translation of 

 was published by publishing house Atlas-Contact in October 2015 as 

. In a translation by Harm Damsma and Niek Miedema.

Garth Risk Hallberg & Peter Buwalda

Catalan anthropologist Albert Sánchez Piñol is a specialist in the African Mbuti (pygmy) people, as well as an excellent writer. His worldwide break-through novel was 

, which tells the story of the battle two Europeans, one a lighthouse guard, the other a meteorologist, fight against an attacking force of giant frogs. Comparisons were drawn immediately to Joseph Conrad and Howard Phillips Lovecraft - not authors we would particularly mind being compared to.

At Crossing Border, Piñol will be discussing his latest novel 

. This is the seques of his bestselling novel 

Maarten Steenmeijer

Albert Sánchéz Piñol

A Little Life has been translated into Dutch as Een klein leven, and published by publishing house Nieuw Amsterdam

She has only written two books so far, but Hanya Yanagihara (1975) has quickly become famous within the international world of literature. She grew up in Hawaii and Texas and worked at several New York publishing houses. She worked on her debut novel 

 for almost twenty years in secret. Immediately Yanagihara received positive responses. Her next novel, 

, she finished in one-and-a-half years. This novel became an instant classic. For months now the book has been leading the ranks in the international bestseller lists and its
success is continuing unabated.

, and published by publishing house Nieuw Amsterdam. The novel was translated by Kitty Pouwels and Josephine Ruitenberg.

Hanya Yanagihara

Stephen Fry

T.C. Boyle 2003

Héctor Abad

Books from Isabel Allende can be purchased via our partner De Vries Van Stockum Den Haag

Books from Isabel Allende can be purchased via our partner De Vries Van Stockum Den Haag

‘When I say that I was a feminist in kindergarten, I am not exaggerating,’ begins Isabel Allende her new book. Ever since childhood, she was adamant to provide for herself. Now she is world-famous, the diplomate’s daughter who became the first Latin-American woman to reach an audience of hundreds of millions of readers. With her love stories and historical novels, she introduced her readers to South America, the complex, enchanting continent that is so tied up with her personal history. Allende was born in 1942 in Peru, from Chilean parents. After the military coup in Chili in 1973, during which her uncle, president Salvador Allende was murdered, she relocated to Venezuela.

In ‘The soul of a woman’ the author, today based in California, explores the central role of feminism in her life. When she was in her twenties, during the first wave of feminism, she worked for a Chilean feminist magazine, where she ‘sharpened her pen to defy the male establishment’. In her new book, she pays homage to the important women in her life, including her mother Panchita and daughter Paula, but also to authors such as Virginia Woolf and Margaret Atwood, who inspired her to fight for women’s rights. She writes passionately, but not without irony and a sense of humor, about topics as varied as #metoo, aging, the pandemic, and romantic love. Allende: ‘I don’t have to please men anymore’.

During this free online BorderKitchen, Isabel Allende will be interviewed by Ronit Palache about 'The Soul of a Woman'. After the 45 minute interview, there will be an opportunity for viewers to ask questions.

Ronit Palache

Isabel Allende

Ian McEwan

Paolo Giordano won many awards for his debut novel 

(2009), which has been published in more than forty countries. Other novels include 

Award-winning Italian author Paolo Giordano will be joining us at Border Kitchen to discuss his new novel 

, an exploration of hope, doubt and longing in uncertain times. In 

, we meet a man who grapples with the fact that he may never become a father, and is confronted with doubts and temptations as he searches for balance in his marriage. The novel raises vital questions about how you deal with the fear and vulnerability that can overwhelm you when you lose control of the world around you.

 is a lively and sensitive novel from an author with an empathetic approach to life today in all its facets – faith, science, climate, parenting, love. Giordano describes how we are all looking for a place -- our own Tasmania -- where a future is still possible.

Theo Hakkert

Paolo Giordano

Martha Nussbaum

Ferdinand von Schirach

In collaboration with CPNB and De Bezige Bij

Especially for the launch of the gift book The Jealousy Man, bestselling author Jo Nesbø comes over from Norway to meet his Dutch fans. Between 1 – 10 November you receive the special edition of Nesbø’s The Jealousy Man (De jaloezieman, translated by Annelies de Vroom), if you spend 15 euros or more at a bookstore. The initiative with this special gift book marks the start of the gift campaign ‘Give more with a book’ of the CPNB foundation.


On the small Greek island of Kalymnos near Kos, a German tourist disappears without a trace after going for an early-morning swim in the sea. Witnesses state that the man was fighting with his twin brother the night before his disappearance. The local police is puzzled; there is no body, and no trace of foul play. They still have their suspicions about the case and request the help of inspector Nikos Balli. He is known as the jealousy man and specialized in solving murders in which jealousy appears to be the main motive. Nikos flies to Kalymnos and interrogates Franz Schmid, the brother of the missing Julian. The men have come to the island to climb, a sport the inspector is very familiar with. Nikos is enthralled by the mystery. What went wrong between the brothers? And why does it remind him so strongly of a dark secret in his own life?

Jo Nesbø is Norway’s most successful thriller author. His work was published in over fifty countries, was awarded many times and the film rights for several books have been sold. He sold over 45 million copies worldwide. Nesbø wrote the world-famous Harry Hole series, various standalone thrillers and the children’s book series Doctor Proctor. His thriller Knife (2019) was selected by The Times as one of the top 10 thrillers of the past decade. At the end of May his latest thriller The Kingdom was published, which has been featured in the Dutch Bestseller 60 ever since.

On Friday 29 October, the great Scandinavian thriller author Jo Nesbø comes to BorderKitchen!


Entrance is only possible if you can prove at the door that you have no corona. You can do so by showing a proof of vaccination, proof of recovery or an official test for entry and an ID. More information on www.testenvoortoegang.nl.

Frank Evenblij

Jo Nesbø

Paolo Giordano 2013

 Heimwee naar een andere wereld - Ottessa Moshfegh

Over the last couple of years, American author Ottessa Moshfegh’s star has been rising steadily in American literary circles. The former English teacher seems to capture the spirit of the times like no other, and usually incorporates a given subject in her work it just before it becomes a hype. Her very first published story dealt with women’s choice never to wear make-up again. A bold statement at the time, completely normal now.

, she describes a woman who has resolved to do nothing for a year but sleep, hoping to be reborn in the process. A present-day female Oblomov. Her collection 

) also touches upon many a sore point. Its most controversial story is called 

- in which a female writer describes an unpleasant encounter with an established author when she was only seventeen.

Otessa Moshfegh (1981, Boston) is an American author of short stories and novels. She is of Croatian, Iranian and Jewish descent, and has already made the International Booker Prize shortlist

Rosan Hollak will interview Ottessa Moshfegh in English. After the interview, Moshfegh will be available to sign books, our favourite bookseller 

 is also present with the Dutch and English version of the book.

Rosan Hollak

Ottessa Moshfegh

Irvine Welsh

Nathan Filer

Salman Rushdie 2007

Michel Faber

Almudena Grandes

Emmanuel Carrère

De Mexicaanse schrijver Guillermo Arriaga brak in 2001 door met het script voor de film 

. Daarna volgden nog drie grote films die opvielen vanwege het sterke verhaal; 

21 Grams, Three Burialsof Melquiades Estrada

. Typerend voor zijn werk is de non-lineaire vertelstructuur, die de kijker dwingt tot zoeken en denken. Omdat hij meerdere verhaallijnen door elkaar vlecht kan hij in één verhaal uiteenlopende kwesties verwerken. Arriaga is gefascineerd door de menselijke natuur, zijn films behelzen schuld, boete, dood, eenzaamheid. Hij slaagt erin om zonder pretenties te zijn, de kijker te overvoeden of existentiële levensvragen te behandelen.
Tijdens de BorderKitchen zal hij vertellen over zijn nieuwe boek, 

, dat in november uitkomt onder de titel 

Guillermo Arriaga 2006

Todd Hasak-Lowy

Richard Dawkins was fifteen when he stopped believing in God.

Deeply impressed by the beauty and complexity of living things, he’d felt certain they must have had a designer. Learning about evolution changed his mind. Now one of the world’s best and bestselling science communicators, Dawkins has given readers, young and old, the same opportunity to rethink the big questions.

In twelve fiercely funny, mind-expanding chapters, Dawkins explains how the natural world arose without a designer—the improbability and beauty of the “bottom-up programming” that engineers an embryo or a flock of starlings—and challenges head-on some of the most basic assumptions made by the world’s religions: Do you believe in God? Which one? Is the Bible a “Good Book”? Is adhering to a religion necessary, or even likely, to make people good to one another? Dissecting everything from Abraham’s abuse of Isaac to the construction of a snowflake, 

 is a concise, provocative guide to thinking for yourself.

Richard Dawkins is one of our greatest explainers, thinkers and writers and has been acknowledged as such since publication of his world-altering first book, 

(1976), which was voted the Royal Society’s ‘Most Inspiring Science Book of All Time’. He is also the author of the bestsellers 

The Blind Watchmaker, Climbing Mount Improbable, The Ancestor’s Tale, The God Delusion 

. He is a Fellow of New College, Oxford, and of both the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature. In 2013 Dawkins was voted the world’s top thinker in 

magazine’s poll of 10,000 readers from over 100 countries.

During BorderKitchen Dawkins will be interviewed by Arno Wielders (in English) about his work and this book

After the interview, he will be available to sign books, our favourite bookseller 

 is also present with Dutch and English copies of the book.

Should we believe in God? In this brisk introduction to modern atheism, one of the world’s greatest science writers tells us why we shouldn’t.

Arno Wielders

Richard Dawkins

Jeanette Winterson

Barbara Voors

Last Night I Dreamt I Was A DJ - Frank Báez

 is a globetrotter, but finds her subjects closer to home, as a Mexican living in Trump’s United States - which is almost considered suspicious. In her latest novel, 

 she puts her protagonists on both sides of the border. She describes a Mexican-American family travelling from New York to border territory in Arizona, with David Bowie as their radio companion. Their journey is interspersed with stories of parentless children seeking refuge in ‘the promised land’. When the American children go missing, everything comes together in this roman à clef.

 is also a traveller pur sang. The poet has traversed the globe, always finding a writing table to express all he had experienced. His poems speak of civilisations both ancient and modern, of classical subjects and pop culture, and the Latin compared to the Western world. During his visit to BorderKitchen, he will present his collection 

. Its leitmotif is water - through waves and ripples, the poet always returns to the essence of life.

Valeria Luiselli (1983, Mexico City) is a Mexican author of (short) fiction and essays. She has published several novels and many other works.

Frank Báez (1978, Santo Domingo) is a Dominican poet. has published his work in literary magazines all over the world.

During this double edition of BorderKitchen both authors will be interviewed (in English) by Persis Bekkering. After the interview the Luiselli and Báez will be available to sign books. Our favourite bookseller 

 is also present with Dutch and English copies of the books.

Persis Bekkering

Valeria Luiselli & Frank Báez

Jonathan Safran Foer werd in 1977 geboren en studeerde filosofie aan Princeton. Hij is de samensteller van de anthologie 

A Convergence of Birds: Original Fiction and Poetry Inspired by the Work of Joseph Cornell

, zijn debuutroman, nu wereldwijd vertaald. In zijn nieuwe boek 

 is de hoofdpersoon Oskar Schell uitvinder, sieradenontwerper, amateurentomoloog, francofiel, slagwerker, verwoed schrijver van fanmail, pacifist, archeoloog van Central Park, romanticus, Groot Ontdekkingsreiziger, juwelier, acteur, inconsequent veganist, verzamelaar van: zeldzame munten, vlinders die een natuurlijke dood zijn gestorven, Beatles-spullen, miniatuurcactussen en halfedelstenen. Hij is negen jaar. Oskar heeft zijn vader verloren bij de aanslagen op het WTC in New York. In zijn vaders kledingkast vindt Oskar een vaas, en wanneer hij die per ongeluk laat vallen ontdekt hij een vreemd uitziende sleutel. Dan begint de jonge Oskar een zoektocht die hem door de stad New York zal voeren, in een poging betekenis te geven aan de zinloze dood van zijn vader.

Jonathan Safran Foer 2005

Michael Chabon

Nathan Englander

Charles Lewinsky

Richard Mason

Rock and roll was birthed in basements and garages, radio stations and dance halls, in cities where unexpected gatherings of artists and audience changed and charged the way music is heard and celebrated, capturing lightning in a bottle. Whether Elvis Presley’s Memphis, the Beatles’ Liverpool, Patti Smith’s New York or Kurt Cobain’s Seattle, Lightning Striking reveals the communal energy that creates a scene, a guided tour inside style and performance, to see who’s on stage, along with the movers and shakers, the hustlers and hangers-on, and why everybody is listening. Grandly sweeping and minutely detailed, informed by Kaye’s acclaimed knowledge and experience as a working musician, Lightning Striking is an ear-opening insight into our shared musical and cultural history, a carpet ride of rock and roll’s most influential movements and moments.

‘The writer I have always known him to be’ – Patti Smith

Lenny Kaye (1946) is an American guitarist, composer, and writer who is best known as a member of the Patti Smith Group and compiler of arguably the most influential compilation in rock ‘n’ roll history, ‘Nuggets’, the genre-defining anthology of sixties’ garage-rock that coined the term ‘punk’. Kaye started his first bands while majoring in American History in the 1960s. He wrote for various music magazines including Melody Maker and Rolling Stone when he met Patti Smith in 1971. Kaye stood at the cradle of Patti Smith’s distinctive sound as producer of her debut single and still performs around the world as part of her Group.

On Thursday 18 November, musician and writer Lenny Kaye joins BorderKitchen to talk about his book, Lightning Striking. An exploration of ten crossroads of time and place that define rock and roll, its unforgettable flashpoints, characters, and visionaries, how each generation came to be, how it was discovered by the world.

Lee Brackstone

Lenny Kaye

Wladimir Kaminer

David Vann

Amos Oz (Jeruzalem) wordt wereldwijd gezien als een van de grootste hedendaagse schrijvers en hij is een belangrijk kandidaat voor de Nobelprijs. Oz is naar aanleiding van de verschijning van de Nederlandse vertaling van zijn nieuwste boek 

Amos Oz groeit op als enig kind van een afstandelijke, rationele vader en een romantische, depressieve moeder, in een kleine, volgepakte woning, waar boeken de hoofdbewoners zijn. Ook hij neemt zijn toevlucht tot de wereld van de boeken en observeert zijn familieleden als tragikomische personages uit het werk van Tsjechov en Tolstoj. Als hij twaalf is, pleegt zijn moeder zelfmoord. Deze dramatische gebeurtenis tekent zijn verdere leven.


 is een fenomenaal geschreven roman, vol prachtige metaforen, humor en tederheid. Op meesterlijke wijze vervlecht Amos Oz het verhaal van zijn persoonlijke leven met honderdtwintig jaar familiegeschiedenis, die begint in Odessa en via Polen en Praag eindigt in het door vluchtelingen, pioniers en Holocaust-overlevenden bevolkte Israël.

 is een groots en fabelachtig boek over een man, een familie en een natie, verwikkeld in een pijnlijke geschiedenis.

Amos Oz

LELIEBLANK, SCHARLAKENROOD - Michel Faber

Michel Faber (1960) was born in The Hague, grew up in Australia and currently lives in Scotland. His debut collection of stories 

 received critical acclaim and won several awards. Since then, Faber has belonged to the cream of the crop of international modern literature. The first of Faber’s startling novels to be published, 

 also have received a lot of praise. But Faber’s magnum opius was his 2002 publication of 

. A bestseller in the USA, Italy, France, Holland and Belgium, and a steady seller in most other countries.

Michel Faber 2003

Ludmilla’s Gebroken Engels - DBC Pierre

DBC Pierre, geboren in Australië, opgegroeid in Mexico en later woonachtig in Ierland, heeft een bewogen leven gehad. Nadat hij op zestienjarige leeftijd toegang krijgt tot het fortuin van zijn vader gaat het snel bergafwaarts. Gokken, zwendel, drank- en drugsmisbruik houden hem tot in de dertig verslaafd en arm. De omkeer komt na afkicken, en na het schrijven van 

 dat in 2003 de Man Booker Prize. DBC Pierre trad dat jaar met veel succes op in Crossing Border. Tijdens BorderKitchen zal de schrijver voor het eerst in het openbaar spreken over zijn nieuwe boek 

 is een heftig boek vol sarcastische humor, sociale satire en seksuele waanzin.

DBC Pierre 2006

Jan van Dingstee

Richard Ford

Henry Marsh

 woont en werkt in Rome, waar hij Frans doceert aan de universiteit. 

 ) is een opmerkelijke debuutroman, die in Italië maandenlang in de bestsellerlijsten heeft gestaan. Piperno schetst een meedogenloos portret van de deels joodse, deels katholieke familie Sonnino, tegen de achtergrond van de tweede helft van de twintigste eeuw. Een rake, ironische en soms treurige schets van verholen antisemitisme in de hogere bourgeois kringen van Rome.

 schreef twaalf boeken, merendeels verhalenbundels. Ook schreef hij de succesvolle, met de F. Bordewijk-prijs bekroonde roman 

., hierin raakt Victor van Gigch, sinds dertig jaar leraar aan het Laurens Coster Gymnasium te Haarlem, ondanks verwoede pogingen om aan zichzelf het tegendeel te bewijzen in de ban van Quirina T., een zestienjarige leerlinge die de school verliet, maar van het afscheid nemen geen genoeg kan krijgen.

Alessandro Piperno & L.H.Wiener

Isabel Allende 2015

Anthony Award-winning US writer S.A. Cosby will be joining us on April 13 to talk about his latest novel, 

. The author from Southeastern Virginia is hailed as a master of the ‘Southern Noir’ crime genre, and his second book 

was a New York Times bestseller. In his third novel 

, published in 2021 and recently translated into Dutch, Cosby explores the story of two fathers of a murdered multi-racial gay couple. Both fathers – one Black and one white – have their own criminal pasts and personal demons, but bonded by a love for their dead sons, they band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.

Thomas Heerma van Voss

S.A. Cosby

Alex Desmedt is bezeten door toneel. In Antwerpen werkt hij zich vlak voor de Tweede Wereldoorlog op tot directeur van het grootste stadstheater. Hij viert triomfen, mede dankzij zijn vrouw, sterspeelster Lea Liebermann. Hij introduceert ook technische hoogstandjes, zoals een reusachtige schijf als extra bühne óp de bühne. Dan breekt de bezetting uit. Alex wordt als directeur-generaal van meerdere Antwerpse theaters gehinderd door zware beperkingen. Zijn broer, componist en dirigent Rik Desmedt, kiest voluit voor collaboratie, terwijl Lea, die niet meer mag acteren, ronddwaalt in een stad waar razzia’s het leven kosten aan duizenden. Kort vóór de bevrijding wordt Alex uitgenodigd voor een delicate opdracht in Den Haag. Twee beroemde partijgenoten van Adolf Hitler zullen in de stadsschouwburg de opening bijwonen van het pas opgerichte Deutsches Theater in den Niederlanden. In de bevrijde thuishaven belooft de afrekening bijzonder bloedig te worden..



 is een van de meest veelzijdige en gelauwerde auteurs van ons taalgebied. Hij ontving voor zijn oeuvre zowel de Gouden Ganzenveer als de Constantijn Huygensprijs. Zeven van zijn romans vormden de basis van een film of een tv-serie en er is werk van hem vertaald en gespeeld in meer dan vijftien talen. Hij schreef eerder het Boekenweek- en het Poëziegeschenk en staat ook bekend als performer en polemist. Hij leeft en werkt in Antwerpen en Kaapstad.

“In 2020 hadden we een eerste lezing van mijn Faustbewerking OustFaust in de Ida Wassermanfoyer van de Koninklijke Schouwburg. Wasserman was een groot actrice die tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog als Jodin niet mocht spelen in Antwerpen en na de oorlog een ster werd in Den Haag. Na afloop hoorde ik: ‘Je weet toch dat hier van 1942 tot 1944 het Deutsches Theater in den Niederlanden was gevestigd? In de kelders liggen nog de restanten van het grote draaipodium.’ Ik wilde al twintig jaar een roman schrijven over collaboratie, het liefst in de kunsten, dus dicht bij mezelf. Ik zag die machinerie en alles viel op zijn plaats.”

Tom Lanoye leest exclusief voor uit zijn nieuwe roman 

, die zich voor een groot deel afspeelt in de Koninklijke Schouwburg. Voorafgaand gaat hij in gesprek met dramaturg Remco van Rijn. De lezing vindt plaats in het decor van onze nieuwe voorstelling 

 (de fonkelende nieuwe Faustbewerking die Lanoye schreef en nu te zien is in de theaters) récht boven de plek waaraan de roman zijn titel ontleent.

Tom Lanoye

Michel Houellebecq

 (1972) grew up till his seventh in the shadow of an enormous Lenin statue in St. Petersburg, he spent the next seven years in a New York apartment without TV. A trip to Prague in the nineties was the inspirational source for the imaginary city of Prava in his debut novel The Russian Debutante’s Handbook (2002).

At BorderKitchen, Shteyngart will present his recently published Our Country Friends (2021). In it we follow a diverse group of old friends, among them a Russian writer, a psychiatrist, an app developer and a film star, sit out the pandemic in a remote country house. Old wounds are torn open and new romances erupt. ‘A powerful fable of our broken time’, commented Salman Rushdie.

Gary Shteyngart

Jay McInerney

Bernhard Schlink

John Irving

Marisha Pessl

“No one leaves home unless there's a shark's mouth at home.” With these words, among other things, the young Somali-British poet Warsan Shire touched a nerve in the middle of the European refugee crisis in 2015. Her poem 'Home' was shared worldwide as a call for a more humane policy and instantly made Shire famous. Shire writes about her own experiences as a migrant, about not feeling at home anywhere, about war, sex and being a woman. Drawing on her own life and that of her loved ones, pop culture and media headlines, Shire's highly anticipated debut collection 

 brings to life the lives of refugees and migrants, mothers and daughters, black women and teenage girls in beautiful poems.

Shire (1988) was born in Kenya to Somali parents and migrated to England when she was one year old. The poems she published online attracted tens of thousands of followers on social media. She became London's first-ever Young People's Poet Laureate, she received the African Poetry Prize and she became the youngest person ever to be named Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She was translated into Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. In 2016, Shire co-wrote Beyoncé's album Lemonade and reached millions of new fans. Bless the daughter is translated by Radna Fabias (1983), born and raised in Curaçao. Fabias made her debut as a poet with Habitus, with which she won the C. Buddingh' Prize, the Awater Poetry Prize, the Herman de Coninck Prize and the Grote Poëzie Prize.

Hodan Warsame

Warsan Shire

Julia Blackburn

A.B. Yehoshua

Despite her young age, the Russian Nadja Tolokonnikova (1989) has lived an eventful life. When she was twenty-one she was one of the founders of the band Pussy Riot. With their critical punk songs they provocingly try to jazz up ultra conservative Russia. After a performance in which they ridicule Poetin and the Chutch, the band members are being arrested. After a political sham trial some of them are convicted to two years of prison camp. At this camp Tolokonnikova manages to to write her book 

. She writes about the fate of the group members, Tolokonnikova's youth and the conditions at the prison camp.

BorderKitchen has the honour to welcome Nadja Tolokonnikova on Thursday February 16th in The Hague. The interviewer is journalist, writer and columnist Sander Donkers.

Sander Donkers

Nadja Tolokonnikova

Dave Eggers heeft het verhaal opgetekend in romanvorm van Valentino Achak Deng in zijn roman 

. Valentino Achak Deng behoort tot de zogenaamde Lost Boys, een verzamelnaam (geleend van de weeskinderen uit 'Peter Pan') voor de groepen van alles samen bijna 20.000 kinderen die bij het uitbreken van de burgeroorlog in Soedan in 1987 een onmenselijke, 1.500 kilometer lange voettocht naar de veiligheid ondernamen. Aanvankelijk zochten ze hun heil in een vluchtelingenkamp in Ethiopië, na de regimewissel aldaar verhuisden ze naar Kenia. 4.000 onder hen werden in 2000 en 2001 (bijna vijftien jaar later!) naar Amerika gevlogen om er een heel nieuw leven te beginnen - Deng was één van de allerlaatsten vóór 9/11 een einde maakte aan Amerika's gastvrijheid.


 is de vrucht van de vriendschap tussen Deng en Eggers, gebaseerd op drie jaar onderzoek: eindeloze gesprekken, talloze e-mails, vele door Deng ingesproken cassettebandjes en een gezamenlijk bezoek van een maand aan Zuid-Soedan, in december 2003.

Dave Eggers & Valentino Achak Deng

Books from Etgar Keret can be purchased via our partner De Vries Van Stockum Den Haag

Books from Etgar Keret can be purchased via our partner De Vries Van Stockum Den Haag.

Etgar Keret (1967) is a writer and filmmaker from Israel. He wrote several collections of short stories, that were published and translated all across the globe.

Israeli writer Etgar Keret has one of the most wondrous voices in contemporary literature. It made him something of a superstar worldwide. His rich body of work is definitely dealing with current affairs, but always in a slightly absurd manor, never boldly realistic. The basic question of his work seems to be one of the most existential ones imaginable: 

 Pop culture and the divide between the (Middle) East and West, are also pillars of his writing. His stories are like the Parables of Jesus: they are equally human, magically realistic, poetic and provocative.

. Again he lets no stone unturned in his world of unique heroes and anti-heroes. In one story we meet a man who is so rich, he decides that one birthday a year isn’t enough to fulfill his need for self-celebration. He then starts to ‘buy’ birthdays from other, financially less fortunate people. In what is perhaps the most gripping of all the tales that are told in this book, we are introduced to three sisters. These young women have just lost their father. They project and transfer all their grief onto a rabbit, of which they are 

 it is the reincarnation of their dad. Once again, Keret amazes with his touching and deeply human stories.

Also on the roster for this evening: the documentary feature 

. In this film, Marloes Blokker, Stephane Kaas & Rutger Lemm try to unravel the mystery that is Etgar Keret. In a unique mix of live action and animation, they ponder what Kerets writings have brought them personally and how it has inspired the rest of the world. The central focus lies upon Keret’s continuing game with fact versus fiction.


First -free- online BorderKitchen with Israeli author Etgar Keret

We are very happy to announce we will continue online with BorderKitchen and will regularly livestream interviews, readings and (hopefully) some out of this world freestyle performances of exciting international authors. The kick off will be done by no other than Etgar Keret, this Tuesday at 8pm. He was due to travel to The Hague for a BorderKitchen in March, which had to be canceled for obvious reasons. We’re therefore thrilled to still be able to host a conversation with him, this time via a livestream on Zoom.

Jasper Henderson will interview Etgar Keret in English. Afterwards, people joining in can ask questions. The session will start with an introduction and explanation as to how these online interviews will work.

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You will then receive a link to the livestream. We will be using the Zoom tool/platform for this. You will receive a reminder of the event the day before.

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