What others think of the novel

A reading night in a monastery

While traveling to Ireland, I met an American who had been reading novels continuously for sixty years. It was in a monastery where I sought silence to translated my book and he visited old friends.

The American told us life stories which he intertwined with novel scenes. The wisdom he shared with us he had sometimes received from fictional characters. And he handed out the books he had finished to local prisoners, walking past their cells. 'You might like this.'

Crying listeners

And one evening I read from my book, in gratitude for the monks' hospitality. It was in the monastery's library, by the fireplace, holding a pint of Guinness.

And as I read, the American, in his seventies, had to cry. He even had to leave the room.

I followed him.

"This tragedy reminds me of an episode in my own life," he said.

‘Do you want to have a hug?’

‘Yes.’

To feel his emotion softened it, and we ate cake, which also helped.

A deep catharsis of tears

His crying moved me so much that I gave him the entire manuscript, so that he could keep reading and learn of the ending.

"I read it in one day," he wrote, who has been reading continuously since he was nine years old, "and it resonated with a depth that I rarely experience with a book. The last chapters were stunning, and evoked a deep, deep catharsis of tears. It shook me to my roots, in a good way, helping me be in touch with my own pain, in a very cleansing way.'

For a moment I hesitated to stop publishing my book. After all, it had softened a bruised heart, what more did I wish for?

Biographer of the celebrated Dutch writer Godfried Bomans

There was another voice as well, belonging to teacher of Dutch literature, Gé Vaartjes, a man who breathes books.

He has been reading since early childhood, unlike me. He writes about writers, including the biographies of the celebrated Dutch author Godfried Bomans, of Top Naeff and Herman de Man. And he taught about our language's literarure, at grammar school, with stories that enchanted me and explained stories. More people than just me praised him for that, including the poet Alfred Schaffer.

'It should stand out among other debuts'

And twelve years after my graduation we reconnected. First we talked  about everything that was important and then also about my book. In the weeks that followed he read a hundred pages.

'It is authentic,' he wrote me, 'well-written, thematically interesting, with often beautiful original phrasing, a stunning eye for detail, good observations of the fictional characters, which captivate and make me curious for more. It should stand out among the other debut novels a publisher sees.'

Those who already read the story

And so I created this website, with the opening chapters which hundreds of people have now read or listened to. They are the ones who speak of being deeply moved. They are the ones who hate me for posting only three chapters, and not the 25 that my teacher read, or the 82 that the crying American read.

First, these readers were the people who already liked me while I was still writing, and those who like you often like what you do.

Then came the acquaintances who heard what I had written. They owed me nothing, but were intrigued and moved all the same.

And now so many people are reading the story without us sharing a history. Their opinion is not distorted by friendship, and so their support means a lot to me.

Novel on the hunt for a publisher

Because Three Sorrows is on the hunt for a publisher.

If the book appeals to readers, then perhaps to editors as well? I have no idea about that. I am just a beginner in need of an editor's experience.

Together, we can make the book more powerful and sell it to more moved readers, who will then no longer hate us, because the entire book lies safely in their hands, or on their nightstand, or in their briefcase for the train ride home.

Get in touch

So if you are a publisher, editor, or agent, then please call, Whatsapp, of e-mail me.

I'd love to meet you for a good chat over coffee, and can share the full manuscript of Three Sorrows and its synopsis. I can also tell you what other books I'm working on, so you can get an idea of my broader profile as a writer.

If you are a reader, then please write to me as well. I would love to hera what thoughts and feelings my first chapters evoked in you. I will answer every mail.