Benny Lindelauf

Last week I was in Spain when I received an e-mail from Claudia Bedrick from ‘Enchanted Lion’ that the American edition of ‘Nine Open Arms’ had received two stars, one by ‘Kirkus Reviews’ and one by ‘Publishers weekly’. As I was unfamiliar with the starsystem in the United States I did not comprehend the enthusiastic response by Claudia (‘You and John (the translator) seem to make an amazing team!’) In Holland newspapers use also a starsystem to review books, but the maximum is five stars. Only later on my Dutch editor Dik Zweekhorst explained to me that it is very special that the book received so many stars.

Here are parts of the reviews.

Kirkus Reviews: ‘Lindelauf lures readers into the intrigue and mystery of it all and then demands their intense concentration. Every element of the tale has a purpose, and in the end, the multiple layers of past and present seperate and come together in surprising, often discomfing twists and turns. A challenging and entirely unique Dutch import.’

Publisher’s Weekly: ‘Lindelauf’s masterful rendering of fraught yet loving sisterly ties, snappy dialogue, gravery mysteries and ‘traces of tragical tragedy’from generations past combine to humurous and poignant effect in this gripping tale of eclectic families and inveterate wanderers in search of a welcoming home.’

So: Hurray!

The books ‘Nine Open Arms’ and ‘the Heaven of Heivisj’ have last year been translated by acclaimed author and translator Daniel Hugo and published bij Protea publishers. And not without succes! The reviews of both books are wonderfull. And on top of this, SASNEV (the South African Centre for the Neterlands and Flanders) has invited me to come to South Africa and visit the mains South African cities on a booktour. Probably it will happen in the second half of October 2015.

Inèz Derksen, artistic director of ‘het Laagland’ has asked me to write a new theatre play. I will write it in my native language ‘Limburgs’ which is spoken in the south of Holland. The play will be based on a disaster which happenend near my hometown and which had a profound impression on me as a child: the explosion of a naphtafactory at DSM in 1975. Lots of (young) fathers lost their lives and I often wondered what would be the impact on their childern. I already interviewed relatives of the victims and I am now in the proces of writing.

In february 2013 the Australian edition of ‘Negen Open Armen’ will be published by Allen &Unwinn under the title ‘Nine Open Arms’. You can see here two versions of the cover. To me, the sisters left and right seemed to be a bit small, as Muulke, Jes and Fing only differ a year in age. Allen &Unwinn agreed. I felt a bit sorry for the illustrator, I thought he would have to start from scratch. But only an hour later I received the next version. Long live the digital era!

In november 2013 ‘de hemel van Heivisj’ will be published at Querido in a new, special edition for adults. Hopefully it will draw the attention of adult readers who generally overlook YA-books…