Best Summer Reads: Editors’ Favorite Literary Discoveries of the Moment

Producer Melanie: “If we continue to pollute the air, this book may well predict our future. Bea’s five-year-old daughter has a severe lung condition due to the dense smog and is forced to participate in an experiment. Bea and her daughter are going to survive in the wilderness with a collective of twenty people.”

“Survival of the fittest in its purest form. A man who twists his foot is left behind. And the relationship between Bea and her daughter becomes more animalistic after years of wandering. It is pure fiction and yet it makes you think about your own luxury life. Are we humans short still able to live according to the primitive laws of nature? This compelling book was rightly nominated for the ‘Booker Prize’ in 2020.”

Diane Cook, New Amsterdam, 23.99 euros

Beautyredactrice Sophie: “After the death of her brother Barend − found in his bed in a brand new pajama jacket (albeit without pants) in the middle of piles of porn − Charlotte Mutsaers makes her way through the chaos of his stuff and past. The result of that search is this idiosyncratic book.”

“A vulnerable attempt to understand her brother, which ultimately ends in a layered self-portrait (and a real media row, but you have to look that up yourself). What is fact and what is fiction? As a reader you have to guess. What is certain is that ‘Arnas van Hansaplast’ is a poignant book about family. Sometimes funny, sometimes painful, but always recognizable and moving.”

Charlotte Mutsaers, Das Mag Publishers, 20.99 euros

Graphic designer Sofie: “Kudos for this page turner full of unexpected twists. Thriller author Thomas Olde Heuvelt takes us to Lock Haven, where the residents of Bird Street have made a pact with the devil, to them ‘The Accountant’. They are perfectly happy for eleven months, but in November the Darker Days arrive and luck turns against them.”

“As a reader, we get into the heads of the Lewis da Silva family: father Ralph, mother Luana, 15-year-old daughter Kaila and 10-year-old son Django. The father reaches for the bottle again, the mother is over-anxious, the teenager depressed and the ten-year-old son realizes all too well what is going on in the woods. Because of all the disaster, it goes downhill fast with each of them. With topics such as euthanasia, suicide and bipolar disorder, it is a fictional story that continues to reverberate.”

Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Boekerij 22.99 euros

Editor Chloe: “Journalist Katrin Swartenbroux (De Morgen) writes in a way that charms me. In her non-fiction book about people in their twenties and thirties, she describes how their reality differs from what was assumed. The passage about the housing market made me stare in fear.”

“Is it really that bad? This book provides insights worklife and love life together and reads like a train. The conclusions touch many, as the podcast of the same name proves. I like to read and listen to Swartenbroux’s self-relativization, which makes you think: Phew, it’s not that bad.”

About milestones, makeability and the millennial mindfuck, Katrin Swartenbroux, Overamstel Uitgevers, 21.99 euros

Isabelle, chef NINA: “I’ve read everything from the British writer couple Nicci Gerrard and Sean French − together Nicci French − since I ever interviewed them. A sweet couple who write blood-curdling thrillers. They also have me by the scruff of the neck in their latest.”

“At a big party for her husband Alec, Charlotte is the big absentee. Etty and her brothers don’t understand. In the course of the book, old and new police cases become intertwined. Years later, when father Alec has to go to a nursing home, the children empty the parental home. Their mother is still missing…”

Nicci French, Ambo|Anthos, €22.99

Graphic designer Yentl: “Why madness defeated reason, I only really understood after reading ‘The Discovery of Heaven’. This total novel by Harry Mulisch tells the story of Onno and Max, two best friends who experience playful or shocking events for decades. So they both fall in love with Ada, who also has a child from one of them (I can’t reveal who ;-)).”

“While the story takes place on Earth, the entire book is actually an angel’s account. He has the task of bringing an important object that is among the people – ‘the testimonial’ – back to ‘the Chief’ (read: God). He does this by bringing a few people into contact with each other. In my opinion, the perfect book to read with the sun on your face (and preferably on vacation). You will certainly come along, with those 900 pages.”

Harry Mulisch, The Busy Bee, 30.99 euros

Lifestyleredacteur David: “In busy times I find distraction in non-fiction and a good fashion book, that is my job, but also my passion. Little Book of Versace traces the particularly turbulent history of the glorious Italian fashion house, which celebrates its 45th anniversary this year. Gianni Versace unleashes a revolution with his sexy and liberating outfits for women and men.”

“He was the man who saw street daisies as muses, raised supermodels, was super close to Lady Di and was murdered in 1997. To his sister Donatella to save the luxury house. An emotional wreck with a drug addiction. In addition to high fashion, also high drama.”

Laia Farran Graves, Kosmos Publishers, 18.99 euros

Editor-in-chief Geertrui: “Unfortunately, this slogan sounds more hollow now than it did in my youth, when I was introduced to my grandparents’ WWII stories. Writer Rita Vrancken also delves into her family history. In the captivating ‘You won’t win a war without resistance’, she fragmentarily tells the story of her grandfather Raymond, step-grandfather Gustav, grandmother Rosa, father Marcel and herself.”

“In Buchenwald concentration camp, Gustavus promises to take care of Raymond’s family if he doesn’t make it. Vrancken tells it so touchingly, so small, that it becomes big. A story about how war changes the lives of innocent civilians forever.”

RJJ Vrancken, Publisher EPO, 29.9o euros

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