Marente
de Moor

The Dutch maiden

Summer 1936. Janna, a young Dutch fencer, is sent by her father on a train to apprentice with his old friend, maître Egon von Bötticher. Egon, a hussar who returned wounded and embittered from World War I, spends his days on an isolated estate near Aachen. There, he teaches two strikingly handsome twin brothers and organizes bloody duels for students.

Within the gates of this peculiar world, Janna, intrigued by her aloof maître, begins searching for answers. What happened between him and her father, and who is left to settle the score? Gradually, the outside world intrudes upon life at the estate, leading to a dramatic conclusion.

2010 | Publisher: Querido

AKO Literature Prize 2011

European Union Prize for Literature 2014

French

English

"With Marente de Moor, Dutch literature has gained a highly original writer, one with a seemingly inexhaustible imagination, who will hopefully write many more novels."

- Trouw

"A subtle composition combined with a dry style, extended like the arm of the attacker, makes this an excellent novel that resonates and moves. Without a doubt, one of the best of this literary season."

- Le Monde

"Her nature metaphors have an animalistic force, her reflections are as intelligent as they are idiosyncratic, and the way she evokes the sultry thunderstorm atmosphere on the eve of World War II reveals great storytelling talent."

- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

"An addictive novel of cruel beauty… one of the most delicious novels I’ve read in ages."

- The New York Times

"The threatening atmosphere, moral dilemmas, and raging passions are evoked in brilliantly sculpted sentences. Hermans revisited."

- NRC Handelsblad